Biomechanical Evaluation of Rotator Cuff Repair Complex: Single vs. Double Row Repair

INTRODUCTION: Current rotator cuff repairs have a high incidence of asymptomatic defects [1]. Researchers have quantified that current repairs only restore a maximum of 67% of the original footprint of the rotator cuff [2]. Recently, double row suture anchors repair techniques have been reported that could re-establish the footprint of the rotator cuff [3,4]. Reports have shown that the biomechanical properties increase with the addition of another row of anchors [5]; but have only evaluated isolated portions of the tendon and not evaluated the overall rotator cuff complex. Therefore, the objective of our study was to investigate the response of the rotator cuff complex after single and double row repair to both cyclic loading and failure along with quantifying the restoration of the original rotator cuff footprint.