Johnson & Johnson through its DePuy Synthes franchise has announced the U.S. launch of its Dynacord suture for soft tissue repair in areas such as the rotator cuff in the shoulder.

The Dynacord suture, available on Healix Advance anchors, is part of the DePuy Synthes Mitek Sports Medicine portfolio. J&J launched Dynacord today at the San Diego Shoulder Institute’s 35^th Annual Course.

About a fifth of arthroscopic rotator cuff surgeries fail because of a loss of suture tension, which causes gaps to form in the tissue or between the tissue and bone, according to J&J. The Dynacord suture is meant to help solve the problem because it shortens when tension is lost — maintaining strong tissue to bone compression (also called approximation) through the healing period.

“The launch of Dynacord suture provides us with a unique opportunity to respond to a very real patient need,” said Stephanie Chamberlain, global platform leader for Mitek Sports Medicine and Shoulder Reconstruction. “We have a comprehensive portfolio of sutures and anchors for soft tissue repair, and we continue to bring differentiated innovation to the market that can truly address surgeon and patient needs.”

Here’s how Dynacord works:

• It includes two outer sheaths of braided fibers and a core made of silicone and salt, the core helping the suture to maintain a stable repair environment;
• Once the Dynacord suture is inside the body, the salt particles within the silicone core dissolve, leaving behind a porous structure within the silicone core;
• The small voids created inside the silicone core are filled with surrounding fluid as the core hydrates, causing the braided sheath to expand outward and the suture to shorten in length and maintain a stable repair environment.

The Dynacord suture on Healix Advance anchors is presently in limited launch in the U.S. The full launch is scheduled for the third quarter of 2018.