Read the new virtual issue of Veterinary Surgery, Tendon Tribulations: Current Approaches to Tendon Injury.
Tendons play a vital role in the musculoskeletal system, linking force generating muscles to bones of the rigid skeletal architecture. They have extraordinary strength coupled with flexibility and elasticity. The connections with muscle on one end and bone on the other are highly specialized and consist of multiple transitional layers between tissue types. In part, because tendons have limited blood supply and contain few resident cells, they have poor healing capacity. As a result, both acute and chronic injuries as well as degenerative changes can be career ending for large and small patients. They can also diminish the quality of life for companion animals.
Veterinary surgeons draw on decades of collective experience to manage tendon disorders, using deep knowledge and innovative techniques to advance treatment options for tendon pain and damage. The manuscripts in this virtual issue highlight these challenges and the inventive approaches developed to address them.
