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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from Newstalks at b.

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Speaker 2: Quarter two eleven, Non News Dogs b Doctor Brian betties

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Speaker 2: with us this morning on one of those injuries that

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Speaker 2: any of us who happen to battle away in social

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Speaker 2: sports dreads are ruptured. R Kelly's tendon. So, Brian, what

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Speaker 2: actually is the Archilly's tendon?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Hijack. Well, look, it's actually the largest strongest tendon

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Speaker 3: in the human body. Now, it's a fibrous cord that

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Speaker 3: is a bit of a rope type thing that attaches

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Speaker 3: the back of our calf muscle of the lower leg

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Speaker 3: to our heel. So you can actually feel it at

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Speaker 3: the back of your ankle. It feels like like a

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Speaker 3: rope or a bit of a cord at the back

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Speaker 3: of your ankle. And it is absolutely critical to walking,

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Speaker 3: running and jumping, so very very important in terms of

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Speaker 3: our movement.

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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, it's absolutely vital, isn't it. But it's one

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Speaker 2: of those things that you hear people hear about people

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Speaker 2: injuring all the time. How do we actually damage it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, look, you do hear about all the time.

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Speaker 3: You hear about in top level sports people that they've

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Speaker 3: done their achilles tender. And so the commonest situation is

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Speaker 3: an act of sport, So that's things like rugby, soccer,

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Speaker 3: and basketball. And the reason it happens is that the

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Speaker 3: achilles ruptures or tears apart with forceful movements such as

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Speaker 3: sprinting or jumping or quick stops and changes and movement.

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Speaker 3: Or the other place that occurs if you get direct

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Speaker 3: trauma to the ankle, so you could imagine that happened

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Speaker 3: in a rugby tackle or at the bottom of a

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Speaker 3: ruck where it gets bashed and it can suddenly tear apart. Now,

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Speaker 3: the other place that occurs is with older people. So

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Speaker 3: as you get older, it tends to get a bit afraid,

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Speaker 3: a bit weaker, and it can rupture with the slightest

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Speaker 3: things like a slight trip on a curve or something.

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Speaker 3: It can cause it to pull apart because it does

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Speaker 3: weakend as we get older. So yeah, those are probably

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Speaker 3: the two big places where it occurs.

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Speaker 2: What are the symptoms.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so look, if if it happens, you know it's happened. Look,

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Speaker 3: it's a very very sudden, sharp pain at the back

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Speaker 3: of the lower leg or heel, and often a companied

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Speaker 3: by a popping or a snapping sound. So that's what

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Speaker 3: people describe. They said, I heard this sort of snap

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Speaker 3: that actually occurred, and you are suddenly unable to walk.

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Speaker 3: And the critical one is you can't stand on tipy toes,

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Speaker 3: so tiptoes you cannot do it. There's marked swelling at

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Speaker 3: the bottom of the back of the leg and sometimes

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Speaker 3: you can actually feel if you polp take down the cord,

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Speaker 3: you can actually feel a gap or an indent at

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Speaker 3: where the ruptures occurred, so you can actually feel it sometimes.

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Speaker 3: But the big thing is you can't walk on this thing,

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Speaker 3: and you can't stand on tiptoes. It's just impossible.

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Speaker 1: Is it.

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Speaker 2: Does it continue to be painful after the excellent incident

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Speaker 2: or is it once it's erupted and popped? Is it

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Speaker 2: kind of does the pain subside a bit?

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Speaker 3: No? No, No, it's very painful, and people come limping into

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Speaker 3: the surgery until you start to get into what's called

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Speaker 3: a moon boot or get some definitive treatment. So no,

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Speaker 3: So initially, if it does occur, get ice onto it,

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Speaker 3: rest it up, don't walk on it, and start to

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Speaker 3: take some pain relief like parasital over brief and until

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Speaker 3: you can see the doctor.

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Speaker 2: Okay, once you do see the doctor, what happens.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Look, we generally examine it. We do this very

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Speaker 3: particular test where we get you to kneel on the

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Speaker 3: bed and we squeeze your calf muscle in and if

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Speaker 3: the tendon is intact, we can see the foot or

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Speaker 3: the ankle move, but if it's not, it just doesn't move,

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Speaker 3: so we know that it's ruptured. And sometimes we feel

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Speaker 3: down and we can feel this indient. So if that happens,

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Speaker 3: we generally get an ultrasound or an MRI to see,

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Speaker 3: Look how bad is it. Has it fully ruptured or

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Speaker 3: partially just torn? And if we know that's the case,

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Speaker 3: is generally two things we can do about it. Now,

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Speaker 3: if you're older, you're not an athlete and it's not

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Speaker 3: so time critical, we will generally put you in a

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Speaker 3: what's called a moon boot, which provides some support to

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Speaker 3: the ankle. Get to start to walk around on it

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Speaker 3: raises a heel and you'll be in that for about

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Speaker 3: six months, so it starts to heel itself up and

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Speaker 3: often it'll do that, so it's very good at doing that. However,

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Speaker 3: for those younger people, especially top level athletes, generally they

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Speaker 3: end up seeing an orthopedic surgeon and within two weeks

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Speaker 3: we'll have an operation on the tender itself so to

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Speaker 3: try and sew it back together again. And once that's

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Speaker 3: done your recovery time you're probably looking at three to

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Speaker 3: six months before you're fully recovered up about requires rehab, physio,

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Speaker 3: quite an extensive program to get you back and running.

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Speaker 3: So look, if it happens, it's not great, but you

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Speaker 3: do get better at the end of it. But it

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Speaker 3: takes some time.

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Speaker 2: It's so miserable, isn't it. So is there anything I

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Speaker 2: can do just to avoid it? I mean, I just

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Speaker 2: don't get old. I guess it's the key.

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Speaker 3: Well, well, don't get old and don't play rugby or soccer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so yeah, No.

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Speaker 3: Look, look I'm staying fit, all those things, warm ups

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Speaker 3: before you play sport, staying fit, you know, is really

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Speaker 3: really important. But occasionally it's just one of those things

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Speaker 3: that occurs.

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Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Hey, thank you so much, Brian, appreciate

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Speaker 2: your time. As always, doctor Brian Betty.

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Speaker 1: There more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live

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