A technical tip to aid closure of the short external rotators in the posterior approach to the hip.

Repairing the capsule and the short external rotators through drill holes is a popular method when using the posterior approach to the hip. Many surgeons use an expensive suture passer to pull through the stay sutures. Our method negates the need for that. A size 5 Ethibond® pack (Ethicon, Somerville, NJ, US) contains four sutures. Three are used to tag the posterior structures as stay sutures. The fourth has the curved needle straightened and passed retrograde through the drill holes (Fig 1). The loop of the thread can then ‘lasso’ the stay sutures and draw them out of the trochanter individually by pulling them through the drill holes. Figure 1 Illustration of technique