• Güney Yılmaz, Mahmut Nedim Doral, Egemen Turhan, Gürhan Dönmez, Ahmet Özgür Atay, and Defne Kaya.
• Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Selcuk University Faculty of Medicine, Konya, Turkey. aflguney@hotmail.com.
• Ulus Travma Acil Cer. 2014 Sep 1;20(5):311-8.

BackgroundThis study was intended to investigate the healing properties of open and percutaneous techniques in a rabbit model and compare histological, electron microscopical, and biomechanical findings of the healed tendon between the groups.MethodsTwenty-six rabbits were randomly assigned to two groups of thirteen rabbits each. Percutaneous tenotomy of the Achilles tendon (AT) was applied through a stab incision on the right side 1.5 cm above the calcaneal insertion in all animals. Using the same Bunnell suture, the first group was repaired with the open and the second group was repaired with the percutaneous method. ATs were harvested at the end of eight weeks for biomechanical and histological evaluation.ResultsWhen the sections were evaluated for fibrillar density under electron microscopy, it was noted that fibrils were more abundant in the percutaneous repair group. The tendon scores in the percutaneous group were less than the open group indicating closer histological morphology to normal. The difference was not significant (p=0.065). The mean force to rupture the tendon was 143.7± 9.5 N in percutaneous group and 139.2±8.2 N in the open group. The difference was not significant (p=0.33).ConclusionPercutaneous techniques provide as good clinical results as the open techniques do. The healing tendon shows better findings in histological and electron microscopical level with percutaneous technique.

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