Efficacy and Safety of a Percutaneous Tenotomy System for Debridement of Tendinopathic Tissues

During acute inflammatory phases of tendinopathy, a combination of physical therapy and corticosteroid injections is considered to be moderately effective for acute inflammation. However, surgical debridement of tendinopathic tissues is often required for chronic cases. The TenJet system created by HydroCision, Inc. is a percutaneous device that uses high-pressure saline to debride pathologic tissues during tenotomy. Here, we use a collagenase-induced tendinopathy model on explants from bovine ankle extensor tendons. We use the volume of defect debrided as a metric to determine the efficacy of using high-velocity fluid flow as a debridement tool as well as the effect of velocity magnitude on efficacy. Furthermore, we highlight the negligible disruption of healthy tissue surrounding pathologic tissue.