Diagnosis of acetabular labral tear pathology is mostly clinical and presents in a similar manner as meniscal pathology in the knee. Labral pathology is often associated with femoral acetabular impingement. Patients can present with complaints of mechanical symptoms such as popping, painful clicking and catching and demonstrate a reduced range of motion of the hip. Longitudinal, peripheral and intrasubstance tears are amenable to repair with suture anchors. On occasion the labrum is beyond repair and allograft tissue can be used to reconstruct the labrum.

Procedure

Achieve labral fixation by placing sutures through the labrum in simple or labral base stitch configurations using any Arthrex suture passer. Standard and Knotless SutureTak® and FiberTak® anchors should be placed prior to passing the repair suture, while PushLock® anchors should be placed after passing the repair suture.

Labral Fixation

Suture passing is made easy with the wide variety of instruments from Arthrex, including SwiftStitch™, SutureLasso™, BirdBeak®, and Penetrator™ suture passers.

Suture Passing

Labral Repair/Reconstruction

Using one of a number of Arthrex suture passing devices, stitches are placed in the labrum. This can be of the simple suture configuration or labral base stitch with a single pass or in vertical mattress fashion. When using SutureTak, the anchor is placed before passing the stitch. If using a PushLock anchor the stitch is placed prior to anchor insertion.

Labral Tear/ Insufficiency

Labral Repair/Reconstruction