Background: The prevention of peritendinous adhesions after tendon repair is a significant challenge in hand surgery. To our best knowledge, this is the very first study using MatriDerm and a wraparound technique. Our study was a prospective, double-blinded, randomized case-control study using MatriDerm as an adhesion barrier after primary repair of the flexor digitorum profundus tendon of the human hand in zone II. Methods: We evaluated 38 patients with flexor digitorum profundus injuries. All tendons were repaired using core and circumferential sutures. Randomization was double-blinded, with participants being divided into 2 groups of 19 patients. In the first group, the repaired site was wrapped in MatriDerm, whereas in the second, the site was repaired without MatriDerm. Clinical and functional results were evaluated using the total active movement (TAM) assessment, ultrasound, and visual analog pain scale. Results: The MatriDerm group showed a mean TAM of 82.1%, whereas that of the control group was 66.11%. According to the statistical Mann-Whitney U test, results with MatriDerm were significantly higher compared with the control group, with a medium effect size (exact P = 0.014, P < 0.05, Pearson r = 0.36). Adhesion formation according to ultrasound and pain scores was similar between the control and MatriDerm groups. Conclusions: Our prospective, double-blinded, randomized clinical study showed significantly better TAM outcomes in repaired tendons wrapped in MatriDerm. The promising results of this novel MatriDerm application in zone II flexor tendon repair should undergo wider, adequately powered clinical trials in the future.
Vlajčić et al. (Wed,) studied this question.