Method for assessing the breaking starting strength of meniscal horns from suture retention tests.

Abstract

Surgical repair of a detached meniscal root is performed via a transtibial or in situ technique, using sutures to fix the meniscus to restore knee biomechanics. A critical aspect to prevent repair failure is the capacity of the tissue to hold the sutures subjected to forces throughout surgery and the postoperative period. Previously, visual inspection of video-monitored suture retention tests of meniscal horns and other soft tissues, allowed the identification of a breaking starting point that initiates tissue damage, better representing its suture retention capacity than the final failure. In this scenario, it is key to quantifying the Breaking Starting Strength (BSS). Some studies have analyzed horn resistance at the tissue-suture interface, but a robust methodology for computing the BSS has not been described. This work proposes a method to identify the BSS directly from the load curves of suture retention tests. The methodology has been validated using meniscal horns in human and porcine models.