Tendon healing: an experimental model in the dog.
Based upon the studies of the healing process in dogs in which profundus tendons were severed partially by a method in which the cut surfaces remained in contact and the area of division was in an undamaged area of the sheath, it was shown that healing of the tendon took place without evidence of vascular contribution from the sheath. Vascular loop patterns, similar to those seen in synovial lining of joints or on either side of the growth plate of growing bone, were found on the surface of the tendons in the area of mesotenon reflection, the osseotendinous junctions, where the vinculum joined the tendon, and in various areas of the tendon sheath. No other vessels were found. A theory for nutrition of the tendon is proposed analagous to that postulated for maintenance of cartilage, first with the formation of synovial fluid by the vascular loop system and then a diffusion phase dependent upon the repetitive loading and unloading of the tissue to force the fluid into the system of canaliculi in the tendon.
D000818:Animals; D004285:Dogs; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement; D013710:Tendons / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013997:Time Factors; D014945:Wound Healing