Henry Atkinson presented at the International Serbian Orthopaedic and Trauma Association meeting on the 13th of October 2016, in Belgrade, Serbia. There were over 600 attendees from around the world including the Presidents of the Chinese and Japanese Orthopaedic Associations, and leaders in Regenerative Medicine technology.
One of Henry’s talks was about “Augmented ligament and tendon reconstructions using internal brace techniques”, which he has been innovating for the past 3 years.
Traditional surgical repairs typically involve suturing together degenerative and fragile tissues, or reattaching them with anchor devices with poor pull-out strengths. These repairs are at risk of failure, and patients are usually immobilised for prolonged periods which is detrimental for tissue remodelling, and can lead to other complications.
Henry’s study presented a novel surgical technique which can be adapted to potentially augment any ligament or tendon repairs, without disrupting the healing process. The soft tissue repairs are reinforced with Fibretape (Arthrex) (a biocompatible, inert and inexpensive 2mm tape) which is then locked into the bony attachments with biocomposite swivelocks (Arthrex). This construct then acts as a checkrein/internal brace in some types of tear, and gives increased strength and reinforcement to the tissues in other types of repair.
This was a single surgeon cohort series of 16 quadriceps tendon, 7 patellar tendon, 3 tibialis anterior, 2 tibialis posterior and 59 tendoachilles ruptures, with a median follow-up of over 12 months (range 10-34 months). These techniques were performed in all patients who agreed to have their tendons managed surgically, with no exclusions based on patient age. There were no tendon re-ruptures, no VTE/DVT/PE episodes, and no patient failed to regain their previous normal function.
This technique allowed these patients to dispense with all types of plaster casting, and allowed early motion, an earlier return to weight-bearing, and a far sooner functional recovery. In general patients tended to hit their rehabilitation milestones in half the time of traditional repair techniques.
For more information or to get in touch with Henry, please contact his secretary Nanki at Nanki.Kaur@sportsortho.co.uk