The effects of splintage, suture and excision of the tendon sheath on the healing of incompletely transected flexor tendons in the rabbit have been evaluated separately and in various combinations. When all procedures were done together, repair was accompanied by dense adhesion formation with little evidence of any healing activity by the tendon cells. The experiments indicated that the adhesions were the result not of any one single factor studied but of all three contributing in varying degrees. Suturing produced the most adhesions but synovial sheath excision and immobilisation also contributed. It is suggested that these factors are also responsible for the adhesions which occur after flexor tendon repair in clinical practice.

1. Tendon possesses an active potential for repair and remodelling.

2. Large defects made in the flexor tendons of rabbits showed tenoblastic activity and repair without the formation of adhesions.

3. The failure to show this intrinsic ability for repair in previous studies may have been influenced by adverse factors introduced in order to hold the cut tendon ends together.