The ruptured Achilles tendon heals beautifully when repaired. It just doesn’t need open surgery to repair it. Here is why.

Achilles tendon ruptures are in the news. Season-ending, will take a year to come back, terrible injury…such verdicts fill the headlines. Why?

Almost all orthopaedic injuries are best repaired immediately. The old “wait and see” for most joint injuries has been proven to lead to scar tissue, loss of motion, and arthritis. With today’s accurate imaging, using repair and reconstructing techniques to restore normal anatomy beats living with deformities.

To cut, or not to cut? To repair, or to let heal? To rehab without fixing? To live with imperfect parts? Each of these questions is faced every day by surgeons and their patients. Here are a few decisions about incisions.

Why does Achilles Tendon rupture vex men in the fourth and fifth decades, and why is the repair so troublesome?

The news that Kobe Bryant has "shattered" the timetable for recovery from his Achilles tendon repair is no doubt heartening for Los Angeles Lakers fans.