Patients and methods
This study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration
after the approval of the local ethics committee. Fourteen patients
(four female and ten male) who underwent surgical reconstruction of
Achilles region defect between 2016 and 2019 were retrospectively
evaluated. The mean age of patients was 39 years. If required, surgical
debridement was performed prior to final reconstruction. The size of
skin-soft tissue loss, length of the Achilles tendon defect, exposure of
vital structures (bone, tendon, vessel, nerve, joint, or foreign
material), sensation, motor function, and perfusion were evaluated and
abnormal findings noted. Patients were operated under local or general
anesthesia depending on operative needs. All interventions were
performed by the same team. Details pertaining to patient demographics,
etiology, size/content of the defect, reconstruction, and
complications/reoperations are summarized in Table 1.