Fig. 1.

A photograph shows the operative view of a full-thickness tear of the supraspinatus tendon (right shoulder). The humeral head (HH) cartilage is visible. The anteroposterior trough (three arrows) is located at the humeral head cartilage-bone junction. Three paired nonabsorbable sutures are passed through the lateral cortex, the bony trough, and the tendon stump in a U configuration. A paired suture corresponds to two stitches crossing each other in a cruciform pattern at the tendon level. Knots subsequently will be tightened on the lateral cortex of the greater tuberosity (GT) of the humerus with care being taken to tie the ends from the same suture to one another. LHB = long head of the biceps brachii tendon.