Adjustable racheting suture anchors

Abstract

Knotless suture anchors are disclosed for surgical use, which contain one or more types of ratcheting mechanisms that will allow a surgeon to pull a suture strand through an anchor device in one direction, without allowing the suture strand to travel or creep backward, in the other direction. This will allow a surgeon to emplace a number of such anchors in hard bone(s) or soft tissue(s), during installation of an implant device, while the various suture strands remain loose and do not interfere with proper positioning of the implant. When the implant device is roughly in position, the surgeon can gently “snug” all of the suture strands (which preferably should be braided, to provide a non-smooth surface that will enable a stronger and more secure grip by the ratcheting mechanism), so that they will all reach a moderate plateau of gentle yet firm tension. After the surgeon has ensured that the implant is in proper position, with all of the anchoring sutures in a “snug” status, a series of final tightening and tensioning steps can be carried out on all of the suture strands.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.