Evaluating Failure Rates of Primary Quadriceps Tendon Repairs Across Different Surgical Techniques

Area of Science:

• Orthopaedic Surgery
• Biomedical Engineering
• Sports Medicine

Background:

• Quadriceps tendon ruptures are uncommon injuries.
• Suture anchor fixation shows biomechanical advantages for tendon repair.
• Clinical data on quadriceps tendon repair are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare clinical failure rates of primary quadriceps tendon repair using transosseous tunnel versus suture anchor techniques.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective cohort study analyzed 245 primary quadriceps tendon repairs (2014-2018) from the Military Health System.
• Patients were excluded for polytrauma, open injury, or prior knee arthroplasty.
• Failure was defined as revision surgery; risk factors were assessed via logistic regression.

Main Results:

• The overall failure rate was 11% (27/245 knees).
• Surgical site infection correlated with rerupture (P = .02).
• No significant difference in failure rates between transosseous tunnel (12.2%) and suture anchor (9.0%) repair (P = .51).

Conclusions:

• Transosseous tunnel and suture anchor repairs have similar failure rates for primary quadriceps tendon repair.
• Knotless and knot-tying suture anchors also showed comparable outcomes.
• The observed rerupture rate suggests a need for improved surgical techniques.