Retrospective Study Comparing Two Materials Commonly Used in the LFS Technique for CCLR

Cranial cruciate ligament rupture (CCLR) is the most common cause of degenerative joint disease (DJD) in the stifle of adult dogs. Over the last several years, a new generation of nonabsorbable, multifilament, polyblend polyethylene orthopedic suture materials have been evaluated for use in the lateral fabellar suture (LFS) technique for surgical treatment of CCLR. This retrospective study compared the short-term outcome of 16 dogs that were treated using the LFS technique using either a proprietary polyblend polyethylene orthopedic suture material (FW) or monofilament nylon leader line (NLL). The FW was significantly more likely to fail compared with the NLL (P = 0.0379). Specifically, the FW was 14.667 times likelier to fail than the NLL. When one and two strands of NLL were compared with FW, the FW was 6 times more likely to fail than one strand of NLL and 32 times more likely to fail than two strands of NLL. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study comparing the two materials used in the LFS procedure performed in clinical cases.