Fluoroscopy-Guided Suture Anchor Placement Yields Excellent Accuracy for Arthroscopic Acetabular Labral Repair: A Cadaveric Study.

Purpose: To determine the accuracy of fluoroscopy-guided suture anchor placement for arthroscopic acetabular labral repair in cadaveric hip specimens.

Methods: Two sports medicine fellowship-trained surgeons performed arthroscopic hip surgery on 6 cadaveric specimens each. Suture anchors were placed at the 11-, 12-, 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-o'clock positions of the acetabulum in each specimen using a previously described fluoroscopically guided technique. Gross dissection and thin-cut computed tomography scans were performed to assess for accuracy. The insertion angle between the subchondral bone and the drill bit immediately prior to suture anchor insertion was measured, and fluoroscopic visualization of the subchondral bone at each clock-face position was qualitatively graded as good, fair, or poor by 2 independent reviewers.

Results: Overall, 90.3% of attempts (65 of 72) were entirely intraosseous, 5.5% (4 of 72) perforated the articular cartilage, and 4.2% (3 of 72) perforated the far cortex, rates that are comparable with those in previous cadaveric studies. There was no statistically significant difference in accuracy between the surgeons ( = .42) or between the various clock-face positions ( = .63). Neither the insertion angle ( = .26) nor visualization of the subchondral bone ( = .35) was significantly correlated with accuracy by gross dissection.

Conclusions: In a cadaveric hip arthroscopy model, fluoroscopy-guided suture anchor placement yields excellent accuracy rates, similar to non-image-guided techniques.

Clinical Relevance: Intra-articular suture anchor placement and intrapelvic suture anchor placement are known complications of arthroscopic acetabular labral repair. Fluoroscopically guided suture anchor placement can be a useful tool for hip arthroscopy surgeons performing acetabular labral repair and reconstruction, potentially reducing the risk of these complications.