Researchers matched 10 pairs of fresh-frozen human lower extremities amputated just below the knee and each Achilles tendon was sharply tenotomized. One randomly selected specimen from each pair underwent Achilles repair using a 4-strand Krackow technique with extracellar matrix xenograft augmentation.
There was significantly less gapping in the augmented tendon group at all times after the 10 load cycle. The mean repair site gapping after 1,000 cycles of leading was 4 millimeters in the augmented group and 6.5 millimeters in the suture-only group. The failure load was 821 N in the augmented group and 392 N in the suture-only group.
Read the abstract about augmentation for tendon repair.
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