Fig. 1

Normalized peak load at failure and stiffness of rabbit supraspinatus tendons up to 6 weeks after surgical transosseous or anchor repair. a Transosseous repair showed a steeper strength recovery curve between postoperative week 1 and 4 compared to anchor repairs indicating faster enthesis reformation. Anchor repairs were stronger at the time of surgery (week 0) and 1 week after repair. Both surgical techniques were comparable afterwards. b Stiffness was comparable between the 2 surgical methods at all postoperative durations. Both groups surpassed control load at failure and reached control stiffness. Data are expressed as percent of contralateral shoulder. Four-week data after transosseous repair (gray-discontinuous line) was interpolated from 2 and 6 week data (see the “Methods” section). *p = 0.004 compared to transosseous repair; ^#p < 0.001 compared to transosseous repair. Error bars = 1 standard error of the mean