Thoughts on the Bicep

[rcheeley]

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I was just curious of what is being said in regards to the long head of the biceps and shoulder pain? I know in my area there are many surgeons that are now performing a biceps tenodesis sometimes independently or along w/ a rotator cuff repair. I was just curious about the general thoughts regarding this in the ortho community, and if this is becoming common across the country?

As a PT, I have noticed that there seems to be instant pain relief in many of these cases, however the strength and progress of the therapy following seems to progress a bit slower and I feel less satisfied at the time of discharge when compared to many of my other post-op rotator cuff repairs. I usually don't get to see these patients for more than 12-16 weeks, so I don't know how they are doing at 1-2 years post-op. Anyone noticing any differences?

 

[crp1197]

I have not heard of this in my area but I have seen it mentioned briefly at Sports Med meetings. Considering the disagreement over the function of the long head of the biceps, whether it functions as a humeral head depressor or not, it would appear to me that perhaps the surgeons are not correcting the problem rather they are treating the symptomology.

I would pose this question to those surgeons, by tenodesing the biceps on a cuff repair, what stresses will that apply to the supraspinatus repair? ie humeral head migration. Or for that matter, an isolated tenodesis what effect will that have on the cuff?