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Prospective study of three surgical procedures for long head biceps tendinopathy associated with rotator cuff tears
Carlo Biz1, Giovanni Battista Vinanti, Alberto Rossato
1Orthopaedic Clinic, Padua University, Italy.
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.
