Has anyone had one of these? If so what did you do? I’ve been to two surgeons and basically have been told there is nothing to do and that I either 1) learn to live with the pain & weakness or 2) they cut off the tendon and I deal with having 30-40% loss of strength & ROM. 
My tear according to my MRI report is a partial interstitial tear in the intra-articular biceps tendon at the superior labral origin… Also Adjacent posterior superior labrum is frayed.
How long ago was your injury?
5 months back in December. The surgeons I’ve been to say they never fix bicep tendon tears and that I will just need to do more PT and learn to live with the weakness & pain.
I had the lesser branch of a biceps tendon detached and left detached (on purpose) during a rotator cuff repair. I had no real loss of strength or ROM, as far as I can tell.
Is your tear in the smaller or larger branch of the biceps tendon?
Perhaps you just need longer in PT? I believe these things need about a year or so to start coming around.
How did you hurt it? Well wishes and feel better to you.
Mr. Keysfins had a biceps tendon tear discovered during a shoulder surgery. DH had shoulder pain and ROM/strength issues he attributed to bone spurs in the shoulder, which led him to the surgery. Biceps tear was repaired with surgical screws at that time, and the surgeon estimated it had been torn for quite some time.
He had a long PT, as things were more complicated than he or the surgeon expected, including a rotator cuff tear. (Note to self: insist on MRI before surgery. :rolleyes: )
DH has since regained full ROM and strength, and can play golf again.
According to the Dr. the tear is of the long head of the biceps. I guess that would be the larger branch?
Maybe I do need more PT I did 2 months of formal, 2 sessions a week, PT with exercising at home and 1-2 month of just doing daily PT exercises at home. The PT just doesn’t really seem to be helping. The exercises aren’t getting any easier and I’m still using very light weights. My ROM isn’t improving and while my strength has improved some it’s still very weak.
I hurt it in the most stupid way. I went out to feed my horse Saturday morning Dec 10th and stepped on some ice that had water on top I fell backward with my arm outstretched behind me. The really annoying thing this it was 38degrees out there should not have been ice!
Thank you. I’m very discouraged with the whole thing and the Drs.
I have seen patients who had their long head of the biceps repaired, primarily those who were already having rotator cuff repair surgery. Generally they are also younger patients who have the surgery as well. If you have full range right now one approach would be to strengthen the other muscles that flex your arm and supinate your forearm to compensate for the biceps. This is probably the approach your PT is taking.
I’d guess that I have maybe 75- 90% range; some ways I have full ROM and in other ways I can barely move the arm. I can not reach behind my back to save me. I use to have very flexible shoulders; I could reach my arm behind my back and touch my collar of my shirt and I could do the backwards prayer yoga poise. Now I can barely hook my bra. Also rotating the arm out to the side is very limited the tendon tends to painfully pop when I do this. I have difficulty putting on shirts and putting a sports bra on is impossible. I can not saddle my horse or lift anything that is at all heavy.
The PT isn’t really changing any of these issues. I’d say that I have maybe 60% strength which just doesn’t cut it for my life style; also my whole shoulder just aches all the time.
I did this! A horse rooted hard when I was riding and it tore the muscle and tendon. It did get better but honestly, it took years. YEARS. It hurt for about 6 months, then it was noticeably weak for all of university (I did it summer of freshman year I think). And it is still tight but I remember I couldn’t reach behind my back and up at the same time for probably 5 years- I couldn’t unclip a bra with that arm for all that time. But I just kept using it and it just kept improving and it’s fine now and has been for 15 years or more. I think that swimming and weight training helped a lot, that and not rushing it. Mine was annoyingly painful but not so annoying I was motivated to do anything drastic about it like surgery and just using it for stuff made it stronger over time.
The only residual issue is that arm is a bit tight, I can feel it in my bicep when I stretch it, it pulls on the neck muscles a bit and on my forearm. But I just stretch it more gently.
I had a triceps tear diagnosed by MRI. Several months of PT didn’t work. I did prp and it’s fixed.
@snowrider years? That’s a bit disappointing to hear, but after talking to the latest surgeon I’d rather go the wait and see route than the lets cut everything out surgical route. Seriously the surgeon was like I’ll cut this out and this out and this.:eek:
@Color of Light What’s prp?
It’s platelet rich plasma, from your own bloods platelets. It’s injected into injured tendons or ligaments. Also used on horses.
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