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Contact area and pressure in suture bridge rotator cuff repair using knotless lateral anchors

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Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate whether the use of knotless lateral anchors in a suture bridge construct produces better contact area and pressure parameters than a suture bridge construct with standard lateral anchors that require knots or a double-row repair. The hypothesis was that knotless lateral anchors would produce better contact area and pressure parameters than the other two constructs.

Methods

A total of fifteen matched pairs of cadaveric shoulders were divided into three groups. In Group 1, a suture bridge using knotless anchors for the lateral row was performed on five shoulders. A suture bridge using standard lateral row anchors that require knots was performed on the contralateral shoulders. In Group 2, suture bridge with knotless lateral row anchors was compared with double-row repair. In Group 3, suture bridge using standard lateral row anchors was compared with double-row repair. The contact conditions of the rotator cuff footprint were measured using pressure-sensitive film.

Results

There were no statistically significant differences between any of the techniques regarding contact area F(2, 15.7) = 3.09, P = 0.07 or mean contact pressure F(2, 15.1) = 2.35, P = 0.12. A post hoc power analysis suggests differences between techniques are likely less than 91–113 mm2 for area and 0.071-0.089 N for pressure.

Conclusions

The use of knotless anchors in the lateral row of a suture bridge repair did not increase the footprint contact area or contact pressure when compared to a suture bridge repair requiring knots laterally or to a double-row repair.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Jason Machan, PhD for his assistance with statistical analysis. We wish to acknowledge Robert Villarreal, MD for his artwork contribution. We also wish to acknowledge David Paller MS, Alison Biercevicz, and Ryan Rich for their assistance with the cadaveric specimens. The authors also wish to acknowledge that this work was completed with the assistance of an educational grant from Smith and Nephew that was used to purchase the cadaveric specimens. It was also completed with the assistance of a donation by Arthrex for all the anchors used.

Conflict of interest

The authors wish to report that there are no conflicts of interest for any of the authors, their immediate families, or any research foundation related to the subject of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedics, Alpert Brown Medical School, Rhode Island Hospital, 593 Eddy Street, Providence, RI, 02903, USA

    Marc Tompkins, Keith O. Monchik, Matthew J. Plante, Braden C. Fleming & Paul D. Fadale

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  1. Marc Tompkins
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  2. Keith O. Monchik
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Correspondence to Marc Tompkins.

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Tompkins, M., Monchik, K.O., Plante, M.J. et al. Contact area and pressure in suture bridge rotator cuff repair using knotless lateral anchors. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 19, 1788–1793 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-011-1478-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-011-1478-0

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