Surgery for Retrocalcaneal Bursitis

Description: For patients with refractory retrocalcaneal bursitis (Haglund’s syndrome), the most effective surgical approach has not been defined. We asked whether patients undergoing the tendon-splitting approach and the lateral approach would have comparably effective relief of pain for both types of calcaneal ostectomies.
Both approaches to calcaneal ostectomy provided symptomatic pain relief. However, patients in the tendon-splitting group returned to normal function quicker than patients in the lateral group.
Surgery for Retrocalcaneal Bursitis: A Tendon-splitting versus a Lateral Approach John A. Anderson, MD, MRCS, Eduardo Suero, MD, Padhraig F. O’Loughlin, MD, and John G. Kennedy, MD, FRCS(Orth) Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2008 July; 466(7): 1678–1682. Full text