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A comparison of lateral ankle ligament suture anchor strength
F Alan Barber1, Morley A Herbert, John M Crates
1Plano Orthopedic Sports Medicine and Spine Center, 5228 West Plano Parkway, Plano, TX 75093, USA.
Background:
Lateral ankle ligament repairs increasingly use suture anchors instead of bone tunnels. Our purpose was to compare the biomechanical properties of a knotted and knotless suture anchor appropriate for a lateral ankle ligament reconstruction.
Methods:
In porcine distal fibulae, 10 samples of 2 different PEEK anchors were inserted. The attached sutures were cyclically loaded between 10N and 60N for 200 cycles. A destructive pull was performed and failure loads, cyclic displacement, stiffness, and failure mode recorded.
Results:
PushLock 2.5 anchors failed before 200 cycles. PushLock 100 cycle displacement was less than Morphix 2.5 displacement (p<0.001). Ultimate failure load for anchors completing 200 cycles was 86.5N (PushLock) and 252.1N (Morphix) (p<0.05). The failure mode was suture breaking for all PushLocks while the Morphix failed equally by anchor breaking and suture breakage.
Conclusions:
The knotted Morphix demonstrated more displacement and greater failure strength than the knotless PushLock. The PushLock failed consistently with suture breaking. The Morphix anchor failed both by anchor breaking and by suture breaking.
