Patent ID: 8579923

Claim:
A method for repairing a superior labrum anterior to posterior (SLAP) tear employing a posterior portal and an anterior portal without a lateral portal, the posterior portal for viewing using a scope and the anterior portal for working using arthoscopic tools, the method comprising: a) installing the posterior portal and the anterior portal into a shoulder proximate the superior labrum; b) installing a suture anchor at about a forty-five degree angle into a glenohumeral joint of said shoulder, said suture anchor including a plurality of sutures; c) piercing a portion of skin of said shoulder with a needle at a particular location outside said shoulder and piercingly inserting percutaneously said needle into said shoulder along a piercing path from said particular location to another location inside said shoulder with a sharp distal end of said needle adjacent said other location, wherein said needle extends from a first opening at said particular location to a second opening at said another location along said piercing path without extending through any portal and wherein said needle includes an internal channel extending from said first opening outside said shoulder to said second opening at said sharp distal end; d) introducing a suture transport into said glenohumeral joint through said internal channel of said needle by inserting said suture transport into said first opening and exiting said suture transport from said second opening, said suture transport formed by a pair of shape memory alloy elements wound about each other forming a body and an aperture portion and said aperture portion including an aperture between said elements, said aperture is collapsed when inserted into said first opening and said aperture automatically expanded when exiting said second opening; e) coupling a different one of said plurality of sutures to said aperture of said suture transport; and f) extracting said suture transport from said shoulder at said particular location along said piercing path while said different one suture is coupled to said aperture, to extend said different one suture from said anchor outside said shoulder at said particular location; wherein steps c)-f) are repeated for each said different one suture of said plurality of sutures and said particular locations for each said different one suture are different locations from any other particular location; wherein at least one said piercing path passes through a supraspinatus tendon; and wherein at least one suture of said plurality of sutures extends through said supraspinatus tendon after an extracting step f) including said at least one piercing path extending through said supraspinatus tendon.