Double-row repair of rotator cuff tears: Comparing tendon contact area between techniques

BACKGROUND In rotator cuff repair surgery,the double-row technique is widely performed.Studies have shown that with increased contact area and pressure between tendon and bone interface,better healing is promoted.AIM To assess the different suture configurations with the double-row technique and how this influences the contact area of the rotator cuff tendon to bone.METHODS This was a controlled laboratory study where identical tears were created in 24 fresh porcine shoulders over a 1.5 cm×2.5 cm infraspinatus insertion footprint.Double-row repair techniques,with 3 to 4-suture anchors in different configurations(2 medial,2 lateral vs 2 medial,1 lateral vs 1 medial,2 lateral),were employed for three control groups.Each group consisted of eight shoulders with identical repair configurations.Footprint contact areas of the repaired tendon against the tuberosity were determined using pressure sensitive Fujifilm placed between the tendon and tuberosity.RESULTS The mean contact area between tendon and insertion footprint from the imprinted Fujifilm was obtained using computer software.The contact area measured from a standard 4-suture anchor double row repair was 75.1±9.3 mm2,whereas areas obtained for the 2 lateral-1 medial and 2 medial-1 lateral anchor configurations were 72.9±5.2 mm2 and 75.0±4.9 mm2 respectively.No statistical significance was noted between the three groups.CONCLUSION In the technique of double-row repair,using a 3-suture anchor configuration may offer a non-inferior alternative to the standard 4-anchor construct in terms of efficacy.This may also result in overall cost reduction and shorter surgical time.

Review on Optical Fiber Sensors With Sensitive Thin Films

The combination of fiber optics with nano-structure technologies and sensitive thin films offers great potential for the realization of novel sensor concepts. Miniatured optical fiber sensors with thin films as sensitive elements could open new fields for optical fiber sensor applications. Thin films work as sensitive elements and transducer to get response and feedback from environments, in which optical fibers are employed to work as signal carrier. This article presents some research work conducted at the National Engineering Laboratory for Optical Fiber Sensing Technologies in recent years. Concrete examples are： Pd/WO3 co-sputtered coating as sensing material for optical hydrogen sensors shows robust mechanical stability and meanwhile good sensing performance; TbDyFe magnetostrictive coating directly deposited on fiber Bragg grating （FBG） demonstrates its possibility of miniature optical magnetic field/current sensors, and 40-pm shift of the FBG wavelength happens at a magnetic field order of 50 mT.