INVITED REVIEW ABSTRACT: Tenotomy is a commonly encountered clinical entity, whether traumatic or iatrogenic. This article reviews the response of skeletal muscle to tenotomy. The changes are subdivided into molecular, architectural, and functional categories. Architectural disruption of the muscle includes myofi- ber disorganization, central core necrosis, Z-line streaming, fibrosis of fibers and Golgi tendon organs, changes in sarcomere number, and alterations in the number of membrane particles. Molecular changes include transient changes in myosin heavy chain composition and expression of neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM). Functionally, tenotomized muscle produces de- creased maximum tetanic and twitch tension. Alterations in normal skeletal muscle structure and function are clinically applicable to the understanding of pathological states that follow tendon rupture and iatrogenic tenotomy. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 23: 851–862, 2000 SKELETAL MUSCLE RESPONSE TO TENOTOMY AMIR A. JAMALI, MD,1 POUYA AFSHAR, BS,1 REID A. ABRAMS, MD,1 and RICHARD L. LIEBER, PhD1,2 1Department of Orthopedics, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and Veterans Administration Medical Center, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr., La Jolla, California 92093-9151, USA 2Department of Bioengineering, Biomedical Sciences Graduate Group, University of California and Veterans Administration Medical Centers, San Diego, California, USA Accepted 11 February 2000 The word “tenotomy,” as used in the surgical litera- and traumatic tenotomy, a better understanding of ture, indicates surgical division of a tendon for relief skeletal muscle function and response to injury is of a deformity that is caused by congenital or ac- achieved. In addition, new methods of intervention quired shortening of a muscle. Loss of tendon con- on muscle’s healing response may be investigated, tinuity applies to surgical manipulation, trauma, and leading to accelerated recovery from surgery and degenerative musculoskeletal diseases.59 There are healing after injuries. vast clinical implications of the changes that occur There are numerous examples of tendon injuries both in muscles and tendons after tenotomy. Al- that lead to debilitation. These include rotator cuff though numerous studies have detailed biochemical rupture, Achilles tendon injury, flexor or extensor and architectural properties of tendons after tenot- tendon laceration in the hand, and patellar tendon omy and these results have been incorporated into rupture. Additionally, surgical tenotomy is widely the clinical realm, little information is available re- used in ophthalmology for realignment of the optic garding the biological and mechanical response of axis.56 Tenotomy is commonly performed in foot muscles to surgical tenotomy and to traumatic ten- and ankle surgery for treatment of hallux valgus, in don injury. This has clinical implications in the fields hand surgery for tendon transfers and treatment of of orthopedics, ophthalmology, and general surgery. mallet finger,15 in sports medicine for treatment of By studying the response of muscle to therapeutic tendinitis,45 in the treatment of rheumatologic dis- eases such as hamstring tenotomy for hemophiliac Abbreviations: CCD, central core disease; DMD, Duchenne muscular arthropathy of the knee, in pediatric orthopedics for dystrophy; EDL, extensor digitorum longus; EMG, electromyographic; 20,53 MHC, myosin heavy chain; MLC, myosin light chain; NCAM, neural cell correction of deformities in cerebral palsy, and adhesion molecule; Po, maximum tetanic tension in traumatology for the management of compart- Key words: immobilization; muscle injury; muscle mechanics; sarcomere 33 number; surgical tendon transfer; tenotomy ment syndrome contractures. Thus, it is important Correspondence to: R.L. Lieber; e-mail: [email protected] to understand the effects of tenotomy on skeletal © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. muscle both acutely, immediately after the surgery, Tenotomy and Skeletal Muscle MUSCLE & NERVE June 2000 851 as well as in the long term, after the muscle has had values within only 3 weeks.16 Additionally, they noted the chance to adapt to its new environment. The an increase in the speed of muscle contraction, purpose of this review is to highlight several basic which they attributed to conversion of slow fibers to studies of skeletal muscle tenotomy and to suggest fast fibers. This is similar to the conversion of slow their clinical implications. fibers to fast fibers that occurs with other decreased- use models, such as spinal cord injury46 or hindlimb 13,63 TENOTOMY EFFECTS ON MUSCLE suspension. Active tenotomy is defined as tenotomy of a The immediate effects of tenotomy or tendon rup- muscle while it is undergoing active contraction. Pas- ture on muscle are straightforward. Because normal sive tenotomy is tenotomy of a muscle while at rest. muscles are typically under resting tension, there is Tsai et al. hypothesized that active tenotomy would an immediate decrease in the tension across the be more injurious to muscle based on a more violent muscle as well as sarcomere shortening after the release of tension. In the rabbit extensor digitorum muscle loses one of its attachments. Additionally, the longus muscle (EDL), they compared active to pas- specialized neural sensors are affected with respect sive tenotomy over 3 weeks to determine whether to the length and tension information that they re- active contraction during a tenotomy (simulating ceive and relay (see below). traumatic rupture) would lead to greater muscle in- jury. They found that, after 1 week, the active te- Tenotomy Decreases Muscle Mass and Force- notomy group produced lower maximum tetanic Generation Capacity. Tenotomy, studied across a tension compared to passive tenotomy, possibly in- wide range of species, results in decreased muscle dicating greater damage to the contractile elements mass (Table 1). The specific effect of tenotomy de- (Fig. 1). By 21 days, however, the active tenotomy pends both on the species and on the muscle stud- group had recovered to a significantly greater de- ied. For example, in the rat soleus muscle, 12 days gree than the passive tenotomy group.66 They hy- after tenotomy, muscle mass decreased by approxi- pothesized that the active tenotomy initially caused a mately 50% compared to a normal muscle.16,37,40 It greater muscle injury leading to a greater regenera- has been shown, in general, that the antigravity tive response, allowing more complete restoration of muscles (composed primarily of slow fibers) atrophy the contractile function. to a greater extent than their antagonists (composed primarily of fast fibers). Additionally, tenotomy leads Tenotomy Causes Alterations in Sarcomeres and to greater atrophy of the slow-twitch fibers in cat Supporting Structures. Tenotomy leads to an in- gastrocnemius and soleus.30 Calcium-activated neu- crease in the connective tissue content of a muscle.40 tral proteases are upregulated after tenotomy in the Within 1 week of tenotomy in rat soleus and gastroc- rat soleus, reaching the maximum level at 1 week. nemius muscles, a qualitative increase in both the This time course corresponds to maximum muscle epimysial and perimysial connective tissue layers was fiber disorganization. These enzymes may be in- seen (Figs. 2, 3). By 3 weeks after tenotomy, the vol- volved in the degenerative events that occur in te- ume density of connective tissue had increased by a notomized myofibers.8 factor of 10, with a greater increase in the soleus In contrast to the relatively rapid response of the muscle compared to the gastrocnemius. In parallel rat soleus muscle, atropy of the rabbit soleus muscle to the connective tissue increase, there was a loss in does not reach a significant level until 4 weeks post- the number of capillaries. By 3 weeks post-tenotomy, tenotomy.10 In the rabbit model, reformation of a only 47% of the soleus capillaries remained. The distal attachment of the muscle to either the tendon capillary effect was more pronounced in the soleus stump or surrounding connective tissue with subse- compared to the gastrocnemius. quent application of tension decreases atrophy and Tenotomy also plays a role in the organization of improves maximum tension production, a measure sarcomeres in series within a muscle. It has been of muscle strength.65,66 demonstrated that tenotomy of the proximal and Tenotomy, with intact innervation, leads to sev- distal tendons of rat soleus muscle not only leads to eral changes in muscle contractile function. Buller muscle belly shortening, as expected, but that this and Lewis completely tenotomized all muscles sur- shortening is distributed to the sarcomeres in such a rounding the rabbit ankle and showed significantly way that they shorten proportionally from an average decreased twitch tensions in the tenotomized group length of 2.6 µm to 1.8 µm.5,6 It was further shown (Table 1) to approximately 5–10% of the control that over the course of the following 4 weeks, sarco- 852 Tenotomy and Skeletal Muscle MUSCLE & NERVE June 2000 Table 1. Summary of experimental tenotomy studies.* Ref. Model and no. species Procedure Endpoint Measured results Conclusions 37 Rat soleus and Achilles tenotomy 4–120 days MHC distribution Shift in proportion of fast fiber gastrocnemius types (temporary). No embryonic myosin expression in tenotomized muscle. 71 Rat soleus Proximal and 5 days Histology, transmission Cores found in type 1 fibers after distal tenotomy EM, energy dispersive