Clinical application of self-designed internal row anchor locator in arthroscopic repair of ro-tator cuff tear

Ke Tao; Tang Lin; Wang Zhao; Zhang Xiaohe; Li Jianmin; Zhang Xiaolin

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-4237.2026.02.007

Abstract：Objective To explore the clinical application of a self-designed internal anchor positioning de-vice in arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tear.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 50 patients with rotator cuff tears who were admitted to the Department of Orthopedics,Wulong District People's Hospital from Jan.2022 to Jun.2023.There were 23 males and 27 females aged 52 to 67 years,with an average age of 55.3 years.There were 17 cases of traumatic tear(6 falls and 11 stretch injuries)and 33 cases of degenerative tear.According to the placement methods of internal rowanchors,patients were divided into a manual placement group(n=26)or a self-designed locator group(n=24).Both groups received arthroscopic rotator cuff repair surgery.The Constant score and American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons(ASES)score before,and 6 and 12 months after surgery were re-corded to evaluate the pain relief and functional improvement for the shoulder joint.At the same time,the intraoper-ative placement number,frequency,and time of the internal anchors were recorded for all patients,as well as the oc-currence of adverse events of anchor loosening,extraction,breakage,entering the joint cavity,etc.Results All pa-tients were followed up for 12-16 months,with(14.5±1.6)months for the manual placement group and(14.1±1.5)months for the self-designed locator group,without any statistically significant difference(P=0.645).The postoperative Constant scores and ASES scores of each group were significantly improved with time(all P＜0.05),but comparison at each time point between the two groups showed no statistically significant differences(all P＞0.05).For the manual placement group,a total of 36 anchors were placed in 42 times,with an average placement time of(2.78±1.24)min per session;for the self-designed locator group,a total of 40 anchors were placed in 41 times,with an average placement time of(1.56±0.82)min per session,revealing statistically significant difference(P＜0.05).Moreover,the former revealed 16.7%incidence of adverse events:2 loosening,1 extraction,2 breakage and 1 entering the joint cavity,which was much higher than the 2.5%adverse events(only 1 extraction)for the lat-ter(P＜0.05).Conclusion The use of the self-designed anchor positioning device in arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tear can improve the accuracy of anchor placement and shorten the placement time.Moreover,it is expected to reduce the incidence of anchor failure events.