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. 2012 Sep 10;2(2):133-6.
Print 2012 Apr.

Prospective study of three surgical procedures for long head biceps tendinopathy associated with rotator cuff tears

Carlo Biz  1 , Giovanni Battista Vinanti, Alberto Rossato, Enrico Arnaldi, Roberto Aldegheri
Affiliations

Prospective study of three surgical procedures for long head biceps tendinopathy associated with rotator cuff tears

Carlo Biz et al. Muscles Ligaments Tendons J. .

Abstract

Purpose: simple tenotomy in the treatment of long head biceps (LHB) lesion offers good results, as well as tenotomy/tenodesis.

Materials and methods: we prospectively evaluated 252 patients, divided into 3 groups, treated with rotator cuff repair associated with LHB tenotomy or 2 different types of tenodesis in cases where there had been a partial lesion of the LHB or instability of the bicipital groove. We ascertained whether there was residual pain and the presence of the "Popeye sign" in the post-operative stage.

Results: patients who underwent tenotomy alone achieved an improvement on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Simple Shoulder Test (SST) and modified UCLA shoulder rating compared to patients who underwent LHB tenodesis. A positive Popeye sign is poorly perceived by patients.

Conclusion: we considered the LHB tenotomy as treatment of choice for the rotator cuff surgical repair when there was an evident LHB lesion.

Keywords: long head biceps; rotator cuff; tenodesis; tenotomy.

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