I tore my distal bicep tendon (elbow end) deadlifting. Doc thinks it’s a partial tear and doesn’t want to do surgery. Everything I’ve read says surgery is needed for full recovery though… Has anyone had experience with just rest and rehab? If so how were your results? and how severe was your tear?
Depends on what % it is torn. If it is fairly low, then the conservative/rehab approach is probably better.
I completely tore mine and had surgery to reattach in January 09. You don’t have to have surgery, even with a full rupture, but personally I would recommend it. It depends on how you train and how bad the tear is, but your chances for a full rupture now are very high. The surgery is not fun, but I’m back to heavy deadlifting, chinups, etc. and my repaired bicep is actually stronger than the other one.
Any idea on if it’s only partially torn, how long it would take to heal? And at what level would it return (50%, 75%, 100% of original strength)?
I’m not sure how bad it is in terms of % torn, I am still waiting for an mri. All the dr has said is that if it is a complete tear operate, if partial then rehab only, and on his initial assessment he thought it was a partial tear. The rehab only recommendation is what concerns me though, I’m wondering at what % torn does rehab become ineffective for a person who wants to regain 100% strength and surpass previous levels.
To give you insight on my own situation, I had partially torn my VMO several years ago, which in hindsight is better than my MCL, ACL, meniscus going. But it wasn’t much, maybe 15-20% based off the MRI. No surgery required. Rehab and a slow progression of activity. Have had no issues since and the only difference now is from a cosmetic point of view where my VMO isn’t as full medially, but from a functional standpoint, it is fine.
A tendon and muscle tear are definitely different, as blood flow levels are completely different which will alter healing ability. But again, the severity of the tear will determine what route you want to take. The surgery is NOT fun and there is never a 100% chance you will even make it back to where you were before the injury.
What current goals do you have? Age? Activities involved in?
[quote]LevelHeaded wrote:
To give you insight on my own situation, I had partially torn my VMO several years ago, which in hindsight is better than my MCL, ACL, meniscus going. But it wasn’t much, maybe 15-20% based off the MRI. No surgery required. Rehab and a slow progression of activity. Have had no issues since and the only difference now is from a cosmetic point of view where my VMO isn’t as full medially, but from a functional standpoint, it is fine.
A tendon and muscle tear are definitely different, as blood flow levels are completely different which will alter healing ability. But again, the severity of the tear will determine what route you want to take. The surgery is NOT fun and there is never a 100% chance you will even make it back to where you were before the injury.
What current goals do you have? Age? Activities involved in?[/quote]
Goals are to get as strong as possible, I do a bit of amateur strongman, and I’m in my mid 20s. Prior to the injury I was near a 600 dead, I’d eventually like to get to 700+. Clean and pushpress was low 300s, log was around 300, bench around 400, chin up around bw+135, all numbers I’d like to surpass in the future.
Make sure to bring that up to the doctor when you make a decision. If the doc looks at you as a normal population person, he will definitely give you different advice than if he knew you planned on going strongman stuff. Best of luck with it all!
You would be cleared to train 3 months post surgery. During those three months, you can train your lower body and opposite arm and slowly use your repaired arm. It took about 6 months to feel “normal” again i.e. not thinking about your bicep every minute while working out. But I would say it took about a full year to really get back to where I was pre-surgery. Compare that time frame to what your rehab time frame would be.
It depends how long rehab will take and how strong it will be when all is said and done. I know I would always just be waiting for the full tear to happen, but that’s just me. Of course, you can’t guarantee that you’ll be back to 100% after surgery either.
The MRI sucks! I thought it was more painful than the surgery. They make you put your arm in impossible positions and ask you to hold it completely still like that for 10+ minutes. Let us know how it goes.
Thanks for the responses.
Update, I had an MRI which showed that the part of the tendon that ties the short head bicep muscle in with the long head to attach to the elbow is completely torn, the long head however is fully attached. The otho said that he has never seen this before and wasn’t sure sure if surgery was required but seemed to think that the long head would take over. Has anyone head of this before?
[quote]Joe84 wrote:
Update, I had an MRI which showed that the part of the tendon that ties the short head bicep muscle in with the long head to attach to the elbow is completely torn, the long head however is fully attached. The otho said that he has never seen this before and wasn’t sure sure if surgery was required but seemed to think that the long head would take over. Has anyone head of this before?[/quote]
As Levelheaded pointed out…you must be sure they understand you don’t fall into the ‘general population’ category. At your age and activity level, I would push for the re-attachment surgery. I’ve heard the argument that the aletrnative head would take over (the same argument is made for the dorsal end rupture), and for the acitivty level of a GP person that may be adequate to restore normal function, but for a competitive athlete(strength in paticular) it doesn’t wash with me.