Relive surgery: Double row rotator cuff repair

Abstract

The rate of re-tear after rotator cuff repair is at least 20%. The incidence of cuff re-tear is associated with the size of the tear before surgery. The chance of re-tear in large or massive tear can be as high as 50% in repair performed using single row technique. Repair using double-row suture-bridge technique yields better result but the re-tear rate (30%) is still far from satisfactory. One of the reasons leading to the high re-tear rate is the degenerated nature of the torn rotator cuff. The stitches tends to cut out from the tendon on loading. To reduce the chance of cut-out of the stitches from the tendon, it is suggested to add a “rip-stitch” constructed by high-tensile strength multi-filament non-absorable tape to the double-row suture-bridge repair. The current re-live surgery illustrates a case of double-row rotator cuff repair with a tape as “rip-stitch” in a moderate- to large-sized full thickness tear of supraspinatus tendon.