Knotless soft anchor system

Inventors

Housman, Mark E. • Balboa, Marc J. • Hall, Benjamin M. • Shah, Jay A. • Rogers, Jon-Paul • Patel, Nehal N.

Assignees

Smith and Nephew Orthopaedics AG • Smith and Nephew Asia Pacific Pte Ltd • Smith and Nephew Inc

Abstract

A knotless tissue repair construct is disclosed herein. The construct includes a soft anchor body, with a proximal end, a distal end, and a longitudinal axis extending therebetween. The construct also includes a repair suture fixedly coupled to the anchor body. The construct also includes a transfer suture interwoven repeatedly through and along the anchor body defining a transfer path. Tension on at least one of the repair suture and transfer suture may deploy the anchor body. A transfer suture first end may transfer the repair suture through the anchor body to form a repair loop that may knotless lock the tissue repair construct.

Core Innovation

The disclosed invention relates to a knotless tissue repair construct that includes an anchor body formed of a soft material having a proximal end, a distal end, and a longitudinal axis. The construct includes a repair suture having a first end, a second end, and a cannulated length, where the first end is fixedly coupled to the anchor body and the cannulated length is interwoven along and through a sidewall of the anchor body. The second end extends proximally from the anchor body proximal end, so the repair suture is carried through the anchor body sidewall via the cannulated length.

The construct further includes a deploying suture interwoven repeatedly through and along the anchor body and also within the cannulated length of the repair suture that is interwoven along and through the sidewall. Tension on the deploying suture is configured to change the anchor body to a deployed configuration, and while in the deployed configuration the deploying suture operatively couples to the repair suture second end and draws the repair suture second end back through the anchor body and through the cannulated length.

In the deployed configuration, the drawing action forms a repair loop, and tension on the repair suture second end is configured to knotlessly lock the repair loop. Additional disclosed refinements specify that the anchor body can include braided strands and can be formed with a tubular braided body having an inner lumen and an open proximal end with sutures extending from the open proximal end. Further refinements include deploying suture structures with a spliced loop whose splice length extends through the anchor body and through the repair suture cannulated length, and constraints such as a continuous uninterrupted deploying-member splice length.

Claims Coverage

The partial content provides three independent claims and three main inventive feature areas: interwoven repair suture cannulated length through an anchor sidewall, repeatedly interwoven deploying suture that changes anchor configuration and draws the repair second end through the anchor and cannulated length, and tension-configured knotless locking of a repair loop formed by the drawn repair second end.

Across the independent claims, the inventive core is a knotless tissue repair construct where a repair suture includes a cannulated length interwoven through an anchor body sidewall, and a deploying suture is repeatedly interwoven such that tension changes the anchor to a deployed configuration and couples to the repair suture second end to draw it back through the anchor and cannulated length to form a repair loop. In the deployed configuration, tension on the repair suture second end knotlessly locks the repair loop, and in the braided-strand and spliced-loop embodiments the anchor and deploying suture are further defined as braided strands and as having a spliced loop with a splice length through the anchor and repair suture cannulated length.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications