Abstract
Posterior soft tissue repair is often performed in Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA). Many reports have shown the advantage of posterior soft tissue repair in reducing their prosthetic hip dislocation rates.
We describe an easy and inexpensive way of passing sutures through small drill holes in the Greater Trocanter to re-attach muscle, tendon and capsule in a posterior soft tissue repair.
By using a reversed monofilament suture on a straight needle held in artery forceps and passing this in a retrograde direction through a drill hole, a suture capturing device is produced.
By capturing the long ends of sutures tied in the short external rotators and the posterior capsule of the hip through 2 drill holes in the Greater Trochanter, a posterior soft tissue repair can be performed. We have used this technique successfully in over 100 consecutive THAs.
We conclude that the use of a monofilament suture used in the manner describe is an excellent and inexpensive way to aid in a posterior soft tissue repair in THAs. This is done without the cost of an additional dedicated suture passing device. The suture could also be used in the skin closure if desired.
