Suivi des lésions tendineuses du sportif à potentiel de rechute : place de l'imagerie

This review examines the question of the appropriate imaging work-up schedule for monitoring athletes with potentially recurrent tendon injury. This situation can arise in two contexts: overuse in patients with chronic tendinopathy and traumatic rupture/disinsertion injury. For microtrauma, imaging is not mandatory in the course of treatment; the same is true for resumed activity after a tendon tear. The results and the limits are discussed in detail. An imaging work-up is however warranted if the clinical symptoms change or worsen. The goal is to search for an aggravation of the lesion or a post-therapeutic complication. Imaging results are also useful to monitor repaired partial tears. Dynamic ultrasound with Doppler and MRI are the most powerful tools but have their weak points that must be recalled. The two techniques may be combined for the difficult post-therapeutic assessment of torn tendons.