Suture anchor repair of quadriceps tendon rupture

Quadriceps tendon rupture is an uncommon knee injury that warrants surgical treatment. Traditional surgery has been relatively successful, using trans-patellar-drilled suture repair for tendo-osseous avulsions and simple suture repair for intra-tendinous midsubstance tears. However, recent evidence has identified a unique complication previously unreported in the literature in these patients (displaced longitudinal patellar stress fracture). Suture anchor-based repair has biomechanical strength equivalent to trans-patellar-drilled repair and avoids the potential complication of postoperative fracture. A "pulley technique" with complete footprint coverage has been used for other tendinous avulsions (eg. proximal hamstring) and is described in this article.