{"doi":"10.1530/eor-22-0072","title":"Rehabilitation following operative treatment of acute Achilles tendon ruptures: a systematic review and meta-analysis","abstract":"Purpose: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to compare re-rupture rates, complication rates, functional outcomes, as well as return to work (RTW)/sport (RTS) among different rehabilitation protocols following operative treatment of acute Achilles tendon ruptures. Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Five databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing at least two rehabilitation protocols following surgical repair of acute Achilles tendon ruptures. Rehabilitation protocols were classified as a variation of either non-weightbearing (NWB) or weightbearing (WB) and immobilization (IM) or mobilization (M). The data collection consisted of re-ruptures, complications, and RTW/RTS. Results: Out of 2760 studies screened, 20 RCTs with 1007 patients were eligible. Fourteen studies included a group consisting of WB + M (Group 1), 11 of WB + IM (Group 2), 3 of NWB + M (Group 3), and 13 of NWB + IM (Group 4). Outcome parameters available for a meta-analysis were re-ruptures, complications, RTW, and RTS. Re-ruptures overall occurred in 2.7%, with prevalences ranging between 0.04 and 0.08. Major complications occurred in 2.6%, with prevalences ranging between 0.02 and 0.03. Minor complications occurred in 11.8% with prevalances ranging between 0.04 to 0.17. Comparing the odds-ratios between the four different groups revealed no significant differences with overall favourable results for group 1 (WB+M). Conclusion: Early functional rehabilitation protocols with early ankle M and WB following surgical repair of acute Achilles tendon ruptures are safe and they apparently allow for a quicker RTW and RTS and seem to lead to favourable results.","journal":"EFORT Open Reviews","year":2022,"id":259194,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":17,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9561,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":911355,"name":"Seth C. Shoap","orcid":"0000-0002-7648-9848","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":911356,"name":"J. Turner Vosseller","orcid":"0000-0002-9639-3739","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":911895,"name":"Weija Fan","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":877141,"name":"John Usseglio","orcid":"0000-0003-3184-4751","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":911896,"name":"Wolfgang Boecker","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":911357,"name":"Sebastian Felix Baumbach","orcid":"0000-0002-6287-6206","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":911358,"name":"Hans Polzer","orcid":"0000-0002-6713-4017","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":911354,"name":"Felix Kurt Maßen","orcid":"0000-0003-3835-4229","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":48,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:25:47.305414Z","pmid":"36287109","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}