OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare the rotator cuff tendon resistance at the interface tendon-suture using three different sorts of stitches (simple, mattress and modified Mason-Allen). METHODS: To do this, 30 rotator cuffs were totally dissected from 15 specimens, which were 45 years old on average. The tests were done using a Kratos® 500/2000 machine and the statistical analyses applied were the Student t-test, ANOVA test, Multiple Bonferroni Comparison, and Pearson's correlation coefficients; all the analyses used a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed regarding the age, sample sizes and tendon displacement. The tendon resistance was 127.50 N on average when Simple stitches were used, 163.95 N when Double stitches were used and 198.45 N when the Modified Mason-Allen Knot was used. CONCLUSION: Although the tendon resistance at the interface tendon-suture was higher using the Modified Mason-Allen stitches than it was when using the Double and Simple Knots, there was no difference in tendon resistance when using the Modified Mason-Allen and Double stitches. On the other hand, we found that tendon resistance was higher when using Modified Mason-Allen stitches as compared to tendon resistance when using Simple stitches.
Tendons; Suture techniques; Tensile strength
