Arthroscopic Repair of Medial Transtendinous Rotator Cuff Tears

Rotator cuff tears are extremely common in the adult population, and medial transtendinous rotator cuff tears, although rare, have recently been reported in the literature. These tears are almost always traumatic, which is a common indication for surgical management. It is necessary to consider these tears as a distinct subset when planning for rotator cuff repair because traditional repair techniques would overtension the tendon, increasing the risk for failure of the repair. The objective of this Technical Note is to describe an arthroscopic repair technique for these tears that avoids overtensioning the rotator cuff while still using repair techniques that are familiar to the arthroscopic shoulder surgeon.