Abstract
Recently, there has been considerable interest in the ability to repair the rotator cuff tendon to its anatomic site along the articular margin of the footprint for either double row repairs or with a PASTA lesion. Unfortunately, this can often be difficult to perform since it requires placing a fixation device at the articular margin and then bringing sutures through the rotator cuff tendon. A new technology allows for easy piercing of the rotator cuff tendon under direct visualization with simultaneous placement of the anchoring device. The second preloaded anchor can then be used to create a suture bridge over the tendon for tensioning and eventual security without tying knots. We hypothesized that suture staple double row repair with a knotless anchoring system along with a traditional lateral row fixation has similar biomechanical characteristics to the TOE rotator cuff repair. Therefore, the objective of this study was to quantify and compare the biomechanical characteristics of a knotless suture staple double row (SSDR) repair and transosseous equivalent (TOE) rotator cuff repair using matched pair shoulders. ©2009 ASME.