If you have dealt with an injury before, or if you are an individual in the profession of healthcare, you have heard the word “tendon” with various endings after the root of this word, whether it be “tendinosis”, “tendinitis”, “paratenonitis”, “tenosynovitis” or “tendinopathy”. The terminology behind various tendon conditions is inconsistent in the realm of healthcare, which can lead to confusion for patients and even misdiagnoses by practitioners! In all actuality, does this really matter? For example, think about the Achilles tendon. Will treatment change if someone has an Achilles tendinitis versus an Achilles tendinosis? The answer is YES! Moreover, it is extremely important for individuals to not only receive the correct diagnosis from a healthcare professional but also understand the role they must play in helping facilitate an optimal healing process! In this article, we will review the important differences between tendinitis versus tendinosis, why these differences are important to understand, and evidence-based treatment strategies for these conditions.
When an individual sustains an injury, one of the first questions asked is, “How long will it take until I am back to normal?” When an unexpected event such as an injury disrupts our quality of life, naturally we want to return to our full functional capacity as soon as possible. The difficult part of injuries is that there are certain components of them we are unable to control, such as our age, the type of tissue that was injured, the blood supply to a specific tissue, and the extent of damage that was done. However, what we can control is enhancing our understanding of tissue healing, and how to optimize healing times by avoiding factors that could slow the normal healing process. In this article, we will discuss what body tissue is, the normal phases of tissue healing, why various tissues heal differently, and what you need to know about tissue healing after an injury!
