APEX Shoulder Mastering Surgical Techniques for Clinical Success-Partial Thickness Tears_ Articular and Bursal Sided. Techniques to Keep It, Cut It, or Patch It

Partial Thickness Tears_ Articular and Bursal Sided. Techniques to Keep It, Cut It, or Patch It

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Dr. Lewis McIntyre discusses partial thickness rotator cuff tears, emphasizing their age-related, biologic and mechanical degeneration. Rotator cuff disease progresses from tendonitis to partial, then full-thickness tears, often worsened by intrinsic tendon degeneration and increased strain, particularly in tears over 50% thickness, which usually require repair. Traditional treatments like acromioplasty or repair have considerable short-term morbidity. Dr. McIntyre highlights a novel bio-inductive collagen implant that promotes new tendon tissue formation, reducing strain and improving healing with promising clinical outcomes shown by MRI and patient-reported improvements. This implant, derived from bovine type 1 collagen, is used to augment partial thickness tears, especially difficult bursal-sided ones, as well as massive and revision tears. The procedure involves minimally invasive graft placement and staples for fixation, allowing quicker recovery and less pain compared to conventional surgery. He advocates considering patch augmentation for symptomatic partial tears resistant to conservative care and challenging cases to enhance healing potential.

Asset Caption

Louis McIntyre, MD

Keywords

partial thickness rotator cuff tears

bio-inductive collagen implant

tendon degeneration

rotator cuff repair

minimally invasive graft