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Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, Exercises, Sports Massage

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Peroneus brevis muscle is located under the peroneus longus. This is a shorter and smaller muscle. The function of this muscle is plantar flexion and eversion of the foot. The function of the peroneus brevis tendon is to help an individual go on toes i.e., plantar flexion and also helps in eversion. The tendon is attached to fifth metatarsal on external side of foot. Athletes, especially runners, experience a lot of tightness of this muscle.

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Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear
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Symptoms of Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

  • Twisting or abrupt motion of ankle causes pain.
  • Pain upon weight bearing.
  • Increasing pain upon foot eversion.
  • Presence of bruising as well as swelling.
  • Difficulty in walking.

Causes of Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear:

Peroneus brevis tendon commonly ruptures after a trauma or injury such as ankle sprain. Other severe injuries of tendon include tear or avulsion. An avulsion is a condition where extreme muscle force causes a part of the bone to be pulled off with the tendon. Tendon tear may be complete or partial. Usually tendons tears occur longitudinally.

Treatment of Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

  • Rest is important for healing.
  • Ice therapy application.
  • If the pain is not severe, then the muscle can be gently stretched.
  • Patient should see a sports injury professional.
  • Antiinflammatory drugs help with pain relief and calming down the inflammation.
  • Ultrasound or laser treatment can also be done.
  • Casting can be used for support and faster healing.
  • Crutches can be used for support and to avoid complete weight-bearing.
  • Patient should start rehab exercises as soon as healing is complete in order to restore flexibility and strength of the muscles.

Exercises for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

It is imperative that the patient takes medical advice before beginning the following exercises.

Gastrocnemius Stretching for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

  • Stand with legs apart.
  • The heel of back leg should be located on the floor with knee straight.
  • The front knee should be bent in the forward direction and leaning forwards.
  • This position should be maintained for about half a minute.
  • It should be repeated about three to five times thrice a day.

Soleus Stretching for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

For this, same technique needs to be followed but leg that is stretched needs to be flexed at knee. This will exclude the gastrocnemius muscle from the stretch and will stretch only the soleus muscle. This position needs to be held for half a minute and repeated around five times a day.

Front of the Leg Stretch for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

  • Kneel down on the floor.
  • Make an effort to push the foot slowly downwards.
  • The front side of the ankle should be in contact with the ground.
  • To increase the intensity of this stretch, the knee can be raised a little.
  • This position needs to be held for about half a minute.
  • Repeat 5 times daily.

Strengthening Exercises for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

Static Eversion for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

  • Place the outer part of the foot against a wall or you can place both the feet between the legs of a chair.
  • Press the outer part of the foot as hard as you can against the resistance.
  • Hold this position for 5 seconds.
  • Rest for 5 seconds and repeat for 2 to 3 times daily.

Dynamic Eversion for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

  • The foot should be turned outwards against resistance using a resistance band.
  • Your partner’s hands can also be used to apply resistance.
  • Initially start with 3 sets of 10 reps and increase gradually.

Calf Raise Exercise for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

This exercise strengthens the calf muscles.

  • Stand with feet firmly grounded on floor. The feet should be kept apart. You can take some support while doing this stretch.
  • Rise yourself on tip toes as high as possible.
  • Slowly lower down the heels back.
  • Initially do it for about ten times thrice daily and then slowly increase.
  • To make it tougher, try to do it with a single leg.

Sports Massage for Peroneus Brevis Tendon Tear

It is imperative that the patient takes medical advice before beginning the following exercises.

The most important thing required for massage is a lubricant. This helps in hand glides smoothly during massage. For this, massage oils may be used. Care should be taken to not use excessive oil, as it can cause loss of control while doing massage. Apart from lubricant, other thing that is needed is a flat surface on which the massage will be done.

Sports Massage to the Calf Muscles:

Technique #1:

This technique is termed as Effleurage and is used to help warm the tissues up to prepare them for deeper massages. Lighter strokes needs to be done with the use of the hand from heel to knee. It should be in the upward direction because it is in direction of blood flow. It someone does it in the opposite direction then it may cause vein injury. After it is done, the hands need to be brought downwards to outside of leg while placing them tightly on skin but without undue pressure. The whole thing is repeated gently and as much section as possible of leg needs to be covered. This needs to be done for about five minutes with slowly raising pressure on strokes in the upward direction.

Technique #2:

This is termed as Petrissage. This is a type of massage technique which is helpful in relaxing and warming the muscles up. The palms or knuckles are used in this. A firm pressure is maintained using hands. Half the muscle should be pulled towards your direction using fingers of one hand and half should be pushed away using the thumb of other hand. Then, this should be reversed. As much area as possible should be covered. This technique needs to be done for about five minutes and can be alternated with the above mentioned effleurage technique.

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Technique #3 and #4:

This is termed as stripping of muscle. This is a common technique done to smoothen out any scar tissue present. Deep pressure needs to be applied using both thumbs at the middle of calf muscle with intention of moving apart the heads of gastrocnemius muscle. This technique needs to be done slowly in order to sense the muscle underneath. It needs to be repeated approximately five times at a stretch, alternating with petrissage for about five minutes. For more intense pressure, single thumb can be used along with two fingers from the other hand. This massage should be appropriately done so as not to cause any pain to the individual.

Techniques #5 and #6:

This is termed as circular friction and trigger points. In this, the thumb is used in circular motion to massage. This is useful in breakdown of adhesions and scar tissues. Circular friction and stripping technique is used alternatively for deeper massage of muscle tissues. Around 20 circular frictions need to be applied alternating with stripping and petrissage techniques. If any knots or sensitive spots are sensed then deep constant pressure needs to be applied to these areas using thumbs. These sensitive points in the muscle are called as trigger points. The pressure on these trigger points need to be increased till it reaches 7-8/10 on pain scale with 10 being the worst pain ever felt. Pressure needs to be applied until the pain scale decreases to about a 4. This should be repeated. once more.
This technique is very cumbersome for thumbs and it is important that thumbs are a little bit flexed when applying pressure to prevent any damage to the joints.

Cooling Off

The therapist finishes off by applying petrissage technique and effleurage technique again. This entire procedure should not take more than half an hour.

If the massage is done in a light manner, then it can be done every day but deeper massages should be done on alternate days to allow tissues to convalesce.

Sports massage is very useful for muscle strains by calming down the stiffness and stop scar tissue formation at the location of injury. It also helps in realignment of new healing fibers and helps in avoiding reinjury.

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Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:September 18, 2018

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