Winning Technology: KATOR Suture Anchor
KATOR LLC
Inventors: T. Wade Fallin, Joel Helgerson, Robert Burks, M.D., Robert Trashjian, M.D., Charles Saltzman, M.D., Casey Kwan-Ho Chan, M.D.
Engineers: Joel Helgerson, T. Wade Fallin, Robert Burks, M.D., Robert Trashjian, M.D., Charles Saltzman, M.D., Casey Kwan-Ho Chan, M.D.
Fifty percent fewer anchors with equivalent biomechanics.
That’s why KATOR LLC’s new Knotless Arthroscopic TransOsseous Repair system for rotator cuff repair and Achilles tendon reattachment procedures is one of the best new sports medicine technologies for 2018.
The FDA-approved implant system and its instrumentation delivers the secure suture patterns required but with only two anchors instead of the historically needed four anchors. This will reduce cost and anchor load in the tuberosity.
In a study, “Biomechanical Comparison of Transosseous Knotless Rotator Cuff Repair Versus Transosseous Equivalent Repair: Half The Anchors With Equivalent Biomechanics?” published in Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopy and Related Surgery in January 2018, transosseous knotless (TOK) repair only failed through soft tissue, whereas transosseous equivalent (TOE) repairs failed through both soft tissue and the repair construct. According to the data, despite 50% fewer suture anchors in the TOK repairs than the TOE repairs, cyclic gapping and ultimate stiffness and failure loads were not significantly different.
Winning Technology: Minimally Invasive Quad Tendon Harvest Set and FiberLoop with FiberTag Fixation
Arthrex, Inc.
Inventors: Jacob Jolly, Thomas Deberardino, James Guerra, Zachary Ingwer.
Engineers: Zachary Ingwer, Tara Swanlaw
Faster, less patient morbidity and a variety of graft options.
Arthrex’s new Minimally Invasive Quad Tendon Harvest Set with FiberLoop with FiberTag Fixation, which has FDA Class II approval, gives surgeons doing cruciate ligament reconstruction a new, faster and less invasive way to safely harvest a graft of a desired length and diameter through a smaller incision.
The system also reduces patient morbidity while still giving the physician the preferable stiffness profile for knee ligament reconstruction. Furthermore, the system can create a variety of grafts to meet the surgeons’ needs including soft tissue, bone soft tissue, all-inside and transtibial.
But wait, there’s still more.
The FiberLoop with FiberTag SpeedWhip™ rip-stop technique reinforces the suture/tissue interface with a FiberTag scaffold. A FiberTag suture is incorporated into the end of the FiberLoop construct to allow each needle pass to incorporate both graft and the FiberTag scaffold.
This technology will make autografts, which have been shown to be superior to allografts especially in younger patients, more accessible. Hamstring and patella tendon grafts up until now have been the only autograft options and they are not a good fit for all patients. Hamstrings sometimes are too small for pediatric patients and the patella tendon autograft can interrupt growth plates.
