The tendons of the body are the structures that attach muscles to bones in order to provide motion to a joint. Tendons are living tissues and susceptible to a variety of insults, which can cause them to malfunction. Usually the first sign of dysfunction is inflammation, which can be caused by a number of factors.
Physical Stress
Stressing or overworking a tendon as with exercise or repetitive strain is common. The result is micro-tears in the tendon tissue resulting in inflammation, swelling and pain. If the stress continues, the tendon can rupture because it cannot sustain the load demands put upon it. The tendons most often diagnosed with inflammation are the Achilles tendon and the tendons of the forearm. Sports injuries such as jumping and repetitively stressing the hands, as with typing or assembly line work, account for most of these cases.
Incomplete Healing
Once a tendon has been damaged, it can take weeks or months to heal properly. Failure to allow the tendon to completely heal before engaging in strenuous activities may cause it to fail again. As a result, inflammation, swelling and pain generally ensue. This process is also called re-injury and is common to athletes.
Trauma and Rupture
The journal "Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports" reports that 75 percent of Achilles tendon ruptures are related to sports. Yet sports only accounts for two percent of ruptures in other tendons. Such ruptures can be small and focal, causing inflammation and pain in a particular point. More often, the rupture is severe and involves a large portion of the tendon causing widespread inflammation and swelling. In even more severe cases, the tendon avulses, or rips away from its attachment. This requires surgery to repair.
Weak Muscles
Weak muscles are not often thought of as causes of tendon inflammation. However, a weak muscle can result in a hyper-mobile joint. If that occurs, the tendon can be hyper-extended and damaged as well. This will produce inflammation and swelling.
Infection
Inflammation of a tendon by infection is almost always a result of surgery or a penetrating injury to the tendon area. Left untreated, the consequences can be serious, with pain and hypomobility resulting. However, most infections are easily treated with oral antibiotics.
Surgery
While no longer common, surgical complications after repairing the Achilles tendon have caused inflammation in that tendon. This is because if the incision to reach the Achilles tendon occurred on the skin above it, where the blood supply to the tendon is poor, it compromised blood flow resulting in tendon hypoxia. The resultant inflamed tendon took longer to heal and was vulnerable to infection, but new surgical techniques have solved the problem.
Anatomy
An anatomical variation which occurs spontaneously in the population is another cause of tendon inflammation. Anatomical Science International reports that as many as 37 percent of arms have a variation which can contribute to tendon inflammation. Most people feel nothing, but if the tendon's path is not smooth and cannot glide effectively, it will rub on adjacent tissues and become inflamed. In severe cases, surgery is required to correct the anatomy.
References
- "Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports"; Etiology and pathophysiology of tendon ruptures in sports; P. Kannus and A. Natri; April 1997
- Tendinosis.org: The Tendinosis Injury
- Orthopod: Achilles Tendon Problems
- "Anatomical Science International"; Anatomical variations in the tendon sheath of the first compartment H. Motoura, et.al.; December, 2009
- Medline Plus: Tenosynovitis
