Paragraph Number

131

FIGS. 49 and 50 are examples in which a suture anchor is provided for use without any sutures preloaded with the anchor. This provides maximum flexibility to the user to choose the type and number of sutures to be used and also allows for suture manipulation during the surgical procedure without the anchor potentially interfering with certain suture passing techniques. The threaders are pre-loaded to facilitate threading the sutures through the anchor once the sutures are selected and/or positioned in the bone and soft tissue. The configuration of the example of FIG. 49 is compact and may be more suitable for open or shallow minimally invasive surgical procedures. The configuration of the example of FIG. 50 may be more suitable for arthroscopic or otherwise deep surgical procedures in which suture management is more challenging.

Added by DJM 9 2021