50 Percent Decline in Surgical Treatment of Achilles Tendon Ruptures in Finland Between 2007 and 2011

Related to the prior blog post regarding the increasing popularity of non-surgical treatment of achilles tendon ruptures in Sweden, researchers in Finland published an article with similar findings in October 2013. The key item of interest regarding surgery:

The highest rates occurred in 2008 in men and 2007 in women, and since then the decrease has been 42% in men and 55% in women.

This is quite amazing, since the reduction in surgical treatment happened in just three (2008-2011) years for men, and in just four years (2007-2011) for women.

It should also be noted that the increases in surgeries from the 1987 through 2007/2008 mentioned in the study are probably due to increasing activity of the elderly as well as an overall increase in the older population due to higher life expectancies. This phenomenon of an increasingly older (and active) population is true in most developed countries.