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Background High re‐tear rates and the cost of anchor repair have led some arthroscopic surgeons to consider going ‘back to the future’ and using Neer type transosseous sutures arthroscopically. Methods We examined the strength of suture repair in the laboratory using a Monsanto tensiometer (Monsanto, Swindon, UK) using a single pull to failure loading programme. Results This shows that, in transosseous repair, the bone tunnels can fail at between 16 N and 115 N compared to anchors that fail at 168 N to 712 N. Discussion This cautionary tale means that going back to ‘the good old days' might not be such a good idea.

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