Elongation of the repair configuration following flexor tendon repair.

A prospective study was carried out to evaluate the status of repair and its relation to the incidence of tenolysis in 91 primary flexor tendon repairs in zone II of the hand in 39 patients. Forty-three flexor tendons were repaired by criss-cross technique and 48 flexor tendons by modified grasp technique. The median increase in the intramarker distance was 1.8 mm for the criss-cross technique and 0.6 mm for the modified grasp technique. Of the flexor tendons repaired by criss-cross technique, 18.5% required tenolysis compared to 6.2% in the group repaired by modified grasp technique. The incidence of tenolysis rose sharply when elongation at the repair site was more than 3 mm for the criss-cross technique and more than 1 mm for the modified grasp configurations. There is a direct correlation between the incidence of tenolysis and the amount of elongation of the repair area.