Treatment of Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy With Ultrasound-Guided Intrabursal Retrocalcaneal Hyaluronic Acid Injection - A Prospective Study

Abstract Background: Insertional Achilles tendinopathy (IAT) is a chronic degenerative enthesopathy involving fibrocartilage changes that resemble osteoarthritic changes in articular cartilage. Thus, our primary goal was to evaluate the effect of hyaluronic acid (HA) injections on IAT. Methods: Fifteen IAT ankles (14 patients) were treated with three consecutive weekly ultrasound-guided retrocalcaneal intrabursal injections of hylan G-F 20 (Synvisc®). Patients answered the "Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment – Achilles" (VISA-A) questionnaire before every injection and on 1 month and 6 months follow-up visits. Univariate analysis was performed to identify differences in functional scores. Results: The mean (VISA-A) score improved significantly following HA injections from 34.8 ± 15.2 (range, 11-63) points before the first injection to 53.6 ± 20.9 (range, 15-77) points after 1 month, and 50.7 ± 18.6 (20-75) points after 6 months. No adverse drug reactions were noted.Conclusions: Three consecutive ultrasound-guided intrabursal retrocalcaneal HA injections were found in our cohort to be beneficial in treating IAT.Trial registration: NCT02368561. Registered 23 February 2015. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02368561?term=insertional+achilles&draw=2&rank=2