HYDERABAD: In what promises to be an exciting technique in the field of orthopaedics, city-based orthopaedic surgeon Dr Raghuveer Reddy has joined hands with a Mumbai-based firm to redesign and manufacture a special device ‘Arthrotunneler’, which will enable surgeons to treat rotator cuff tear without any use of implants.
Rotator cuff is a structure around the shoulder joint, which covers the joint like a cuff and functions as a joint stabiliser. It is made of four muscles -- subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus and teres minor. Tear of any of these muscles or all the muscles is known as rotator cuff tear, leading to shoulder joint pain, restricted joint movement, weakness of shoulder. “In the last few years, different arthroscopic techniques using suture anchors have been developed to increase the tendon-bone contact area in an attempt to reconstitute a more anatomic configuration of the rotator cuff footprint while providing a better environment for tendon healing and to minimise morbidity associated with open surgery. However, the anchor-based techniques have still not replicated the traditional open transosseous repair,” said Dr Reddy. Taking these intomind, a new technique of arthroscopic transosseous cuff repair was developed by Dr Sumant Krishnan.