A BIOMECHANICAL EVALUATION OF SUTURE ANCHORS IN REPAIR OF THE ROTATORCUFF

Repair of the rotator cuff requires secure reattachment, but large chr onic defects cause osteoporosis of the greater tuberosity,which may th en have insufficient strength to allow proper fixation of the tendon, Recently, suture anchors have been introduced, but have not been fully evaluated. We have investigated the strength of suture-to-anchor atta chment, and the use of suture anchors in repairs of the rotator cuff e ither to the greater tuberosity or the lateral cortex of the humerus, The second method gave a significant increase in the strength of the r epair (p = 0.014). The repairs were loaded cyclically and failed at lo w loads by cutting into bone and tendon, casting doubt on the integrit y of the repair in early mobilisation after surgery, Repairs with sutu re anchors did not perform better than those with conventional transos seous attachment.