What is a Suture Anchor?
A Suture anchor, also referred to as a tissue anchor, is a device that mechanically locks into bone. The anchor acts as an attachment site for sutures to repair tendon, ligament, and joint capsule ruptures or avulsions. Commonly using hard cancellous or cortical bone for anchorage, the subcortical placement of the anchor minimizes irritation to adjacent soft tissues. A variety of repair techniques in human orthopedics have been developed using suture anchors since 1991. How is it used in small animals? Clinical use of tissue anchors in small animals was first reported in 1993. The device used by the authors had a reported pullout force of 55.4N and produced favorable clinical results in all cases. With recorded pull out forces up to 6 times greater, the BoneBiter has been effectively used in treating small animal joint instability since 1996. Used in a variety of repair methods, the two most commonly reported techniques have been extracapsular suture stabilization of canine coxofemoral
