Effect of stepwise supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscle advancement on tendon-footprint distance: An ex vivo porcine study.

Authors

Wataru Kurashina, Tsuneari Takahashi, Hideyuki Sasanuma, Yoshikazu Kida, Ryuhei Furukawa, Toshiki Murayama, Takumi Matsumoto

Published in

Journal of orthopaedic science : official journal of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association. Aug 13, 2026. Epub Aug 13, 2026.

Abstract

Achieving tension-free repair of large and massive rotator cuff tears remains challenging. Although muscle advancement techniques have been proposed, their biomechanical effects remain unclear. This study evaluated the effects of stepwise supraspinatus (SSP) and infraspinatus (ISP) muscle advancement on tendon-footprint distance in a porcine ex vivo model.
Twelve shoulders from seven porcine specimens were prepared by detaching the SSP and ISP tendons from the footprint, followed by a standardized resection of 15 mm of the tendon stump. The tendon-footprint distance was measured under a 20 N load. Four conditions were tested: control, SSP alone, SSP + upper ISP, and SSP + entire ISP. Data were analyzed using the Friedman test with post hoc Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and Bonferroni correction.
The median (interquartile range) distances were 23.0 (18.8-26.3) mm in the control, 19.0 (15.0-24.0) mm with SSP alone, 16.5 (9.8-18.3) mm with SSP + upper ISP, and 0.5 (0.0-4.0) mm with SSP + entire ISP. Significant differences were observed among conditions (P < 0.001). SSP + entire ISP showed significantly smaller distances than all other conditions (P = 0.015). SSP + upper ISP also showed smaller distances than control (P = 0.032) and SSP alone (P = 0.036), whereas no difference was found between control and SSP alone (P = 0.132).
Stepwise muscle advancement progressively reduces the tendon-footprint distance, with SSP+entire ISP providing the greatest effect. ISP advancement may be critical for tension-free repair.

PMID:
42595689
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.