Comparison of the cheese-wiring effects among three sutures used in rotator cuff repair.

PURPOSE

The goal of this study was to compare the cheese-wiring effects of three sutures with different coefficients of friction.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sixteen human cadaveric shoulders were dissected to expose the distal supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscle tendons. Three sutures were stitched through the tendons: #2 Orthocord(™) suture (reference #223114, DePuy Mitek, Inc., Raynham, MA), #2 ETHIBOND* EXCEL Suture, and #2 FiberWire(®) suture (FiberWire(®), Arthrex, Naples, FL). The sutures were pulled by cyclic axial forces from 10 to 70 N at 1 Hz for 1000 cycles through a MTS machine. The cut-through distance on the tendon was measured with a digital caliper.

RESULTS

The cut-through distance in the supraspinatus tendons (mean ± standard deviation, n = 12) were 2.9 ± 0.6 mm for #2 Orthocord(™) suture, 3.2 ± 1.2 mm for #2 ETHIBOND* suture, and 4.2 ± 1.7 mm for #2 FiberWire(®) suture. The differences were statistically significant analyzing with analysis of variance (P = 0.047) and two-tailed Student's t-test, which showed significance between Orthocord(™) and FiberWire(®) sutures (P = 0.026), but not significant between Orthocord(™) and ETHIBOND* sutures (P = 0.607) or between ETHIBOND* and FiberWire(®) sutures (P = 0.103).

CONCLUSION

The cheese-wiring effect is less in the Orthocord(™) suture than in the FiberWire(®) suture in human cadaveric supraspinatus tendons.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Identification of sutures that cause high levels of tendon cheese-wiring after rotator cuff repair can lead to better suture selection.