Pre-tied surgical knots for use with suture passers

A method of percutaneously forming a loop of suture around a tear in a meniscus using a pre-tied knot, wherein the suture has a proximal end, a distal end, and a pre-tied knot body formed between the proximal and distal ends, wherein the pre-tied knot body is tied around a leader snare so that a loop of the leader snare extends from the pre-tied knot body in a first direction and a tail of the leader snare extends from the pre-tied knot body in a second direction, the method comprising:

• percutaneously passing the distal end of the suture from an inferior surface to a superior surface of the meniscus;
• percutaneously passing the leader snare from the inferior surface to the superior surface of the meniscus;
• passing the distal end of the suture through the loop of the leader snare;
• forming a loop of suture by pulling the tail of the leader snare to draw the distal end of the suture from the superior surface to the inferior surface and through the pre-tied knot body while removing the leader snare from the pre-tied knot body;
• and
• cinching the loop of suture around the meniscus.

A method of knotting a suture, the method comprising:

• passing a suture through a meniscus tissue, wherein the suture comprises a pre-tied knot at a first end region of the suture, the pre-tied knot comprising a knot body having one or more loops of the suture around a leader snare, wherein each loop has at least one crossing point, and further wherein the leader snare comprises a bight region formed of a length of linear and flexible material extending from a first end of the knot body and a pull tail extending from a second end of the knot body;
• passing the bight region of the leader snare through the meniscus tissue;
• passing a second end of the suture through the bight region;
• pulling the pull tail of the leader snare to draw the second end of the suture through the knot body while removing the leader snare from the knot body;
• and
• tightening the knot body around the second end of the suture, wherein passing the suture comprises passing the suture from the inferior to the superior side of a meniscus or from the superior to the inferior side of the meniscus.