TENDINOPATHY AND OBESITY

INTRODUCTION: Tendinopathies and tendon tears account for over 30% of all musculoskeletal consultations. Obesity, which is becoming one of the world´s most prevalent public health issues, may be associated with this condition. OBJECTIVE: To review the literature about tendinopathies and obesity association. METHODS: This is a descriptive exploratory study using the portal Medline. Literature in English language from 2006 to 2014 were reviewed. RESULTS: The pathogenesis of tendinopathies includes inflammatory, regenerative and degenerative processes that happen simultaneously from early to late phases of the disease. Mechanical stress upon tendons seems to be one of the most important factors to initiate the inflammatory response, but it´s not the only one that can deflagrate it: there are other extrinsic, genetic and metabolic factors that may be involved. Therefore, tendinopathies in obese patients can be due to tendon overload because of the excess of weight, but also because of increased production of pro-inflammatory mediators related to fat tissue such as adipokines. This pro-inflammatory state that obese people can suffer is known as adiposopathy, or sick fat syndrome. Weight loss is associated with decrease in adipokines and improvement of musculoskeletal symptoms. CONCLUSION: The relation of obesity and tendinopathies is supported by evidences of recent studies, exemplified in this review of literature.