Achilles tendon thickening
Dr Yuranga Weerakkody ◉ et al.
Achilles tendon thickening can occur for a number of reasons.
The Achilles tendon has an average AP diameter of 6 mm 1. Thickening of the tendon is when it exceeds 8 mm in AP diameter and can result from:
- Achilles tendinosis/tear
- post-surgical thickening
- retrocalcaneal bursitis
- degeneration
- mucoid
- hypoxic
- rheumatoid arthritis
- gouty infiltration
- Achilles tendon xanthoma (tends to be nodular and occurs with familial hypercholesterolemia) 2
- Haglund syndrome
- fluoroquinolone therapy
- accessory soleus muscle
- neoplasms: rare reports of pigmented villonodular synovitis and lymphoma