This can be a very debilitating injury.
One can have a partial or full substance tear (complete rupture). As one could imagine, the worse the tear the more emergent the condition. This does not necessarily mean that the recovery is any longer or shorter. In other words, sometimes the more conservative treatment may actually take longer to heal from. There are some newer techniques with tendon repairs that can get one back on their feet much faster than in the past. The more active the patient, typically surgery has been found to have increase muscle strength and faster return to pre-injury activities though one may need to consider the pros and cons of conservative care also. We perform some of the most cutting edge procedures for tendon ruptures, some through very small incisions, though sometimes these repairs include larger incisions with more modern types of man-made type grafts to improve strength and function.