In this episode of eOrthopodTV, orthopaedic surgeon William Seeds, MD discusses the evaluation and treatment of distal biceps tendon rupture in the elbow.
I am still recovering from surgery for this issue. For anyone uncertain if you've accrued this injury, I would just say you'd know if it happened. It doesn't feel like a sore muscle or minor pain. The pain is immediate, severe pain and you won't be able to lift anything.
@@MidnightMarrow Yes... Mental... My tear ruined the end of my fishing season. Cant hunt this year either. The end is near... Or it makes you feel that way anyway 😆
@@garymarch4711 Just the idea that you've broken in a way that can only be fixed with surgery alone just makes you feel worthless heh. In my case I wasn't even lifting at the time so it's just no fun all over.
Yeah mine hurt maybe 48hrs & otherwise was just tender if I touch it. I was still cleaning homes but did have slight issues I could due like fling a sheet into a bed or blanket but regular cleaning I could do with no issues. I’m 5 days out of surgery & can’t do anything now.
Thanks for your help guys ..I really appreciate you sharing with us on your experience..It has given me some vision .And without vision people perish .. Shalom
Hey Robert, can you give me more details about your recovery? How long were you off work? Were you able to drive? etc. My doctor sent me to have the MRI but assume that surgery is sometime soon.
Great Video! I have watched a number of these on this topic. This is the best I have seen. Great host and questions and Dr. Seeds is a fantastic guest. I wish I was under his care. I injured my arm loading heavy items in my truck. Pain was so bad I went to ER that day. Xray and referral to Ortho. Saw Ortho 4 days later. I wanted an MRI, I asked for MRI. Ortho said he didn't think necessary. In his opinion I had a bad bicep sprain. Told me rest it and wear a sling for 4-6 weeks. If still hurts then maybe some PT is in order. After 4 weeks and no sign of improvement, I emailed ortho. He then says, perhaps we should proceed with an MRI. Result= 90% full thickness tear of distal bicep tendon. Never heard again from that ortho again. Didn't even contact me after MRI. A surgeon contacted me 3 days after MRI and said I need surgery as soon as possible. Surgery performed 7 weeks after injury. As I type this I am 6 days post-op. I think it went well. Too early to know for sure
@@sayedarakyuz Surgery was successful. Great range of motion. Still working slowly on building strength. Don't want to go heavy yet. No issues there. I am 10 weeks-post op. Had my last follow up appt. just a few days ago. I still have some numbness on forearm. Likely permanent, but not a big deal. Still have some nerve pain/tenderness at wrist. Dr. thinks that will go away in time. Thanks for asking.
@@daveb436 56 days have passed since my injury. Was your surgery done with a graft? how are you now would you recommend? I am 23 years old. My surgeon told me that since 56 days had passed, he would not operate even if I was his brother. Your loss should be healed, with all my best wishes..
I tried lifting a bench filled with clay flower pots when I was cleaning up the yard for winter. I felt/heard a pop then watched as my bicep slid up toward my shoulder under the skin. It didn't hurt that badly but it was super unsettling to see/hear. Oddly, I only suffered a little bit of an ache and very little pain. So much so, that I considered not going to ER over it. I consulted an online physician who recommended that I go to the ER within the next 4 hours for assessment. I still had some strength so the attending physician suspected it was partial. Ultrasound the following day confirmed it was a total distal tendon rupture and within a week I was in for surgery. They had me in a very cumbersome surgical plaster cast for the first two weeks. They removed that and I was able to see the incision as they took out the staples. It was a nice straight incision about 3" long held with 17 staples. The technician removed the staples, put 5 steri-strips on the incision and gave me a lighter fiberglass cast. This has been on a week with one more to go. Next week they'll be taking off this cast and putting me into a removable brace leading up to physio. The issue I am facing that I haven't been able to find anyone else experiencing is a tremendous amount of pain and discomfort in my wrist at the base near the ball of my thumb. It's literally the only pain I'm having post-op. I was informed of the nerve going numb down the top of the wrist to the back of the hand and index finger but this is different. It's a definitive pain that is not only within the joint but also on the surface of the skin above it. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I'll be bringing it up with my surgeon next week so I'll update my reply if I get any more info on why this is happening. If anyone else is looking for info like I am, it'd like them to know what my experience has been like.
Hi Stuart, I am having similar issue. Pain or dull ache at wrist sometimes elbow. Have numbness on thumb and index finger but a constant tingling sensation around it. Best of luck for your injury and hopefully a complete recovery .
Hi Jay, I hope you are recovering well. I have noticed a significant improvement over the past few weeks. The pain is lessening and the numbness on top of the arm is fading. The underside however is significantly numb. I expect it will all return. I hope your wrist pain is lessening. Best, Stu
prospectcity I did my left 5 years ago. After about 8 months I was lifting decent weight again. But took about 2 to 3 year a to get back to near my maxxes. I just tore my right and am not looking forward to rehab again on the other arm.
@@HeyIntegrity a pop sound is not necessary. I did have surgery and am 100% try to rotate your arm palm down to palm up. That is what the bicep tendon controls. You'll know if you did it by trying that.
@@scottdodds i had soreness and some pain days after after doing bicep curls. The pain is better but does feels sore supinating and rotating palm up and down. there isn't any swelling just noted upper bicep is tighter. Wondering if you had anytting else. How long did it take you to go to ortho and can this surgery be delayed if you know?
I am a Vet and use the VA hospital, 110 miles from my home. They took x-rays but said their MRI machine wasn't working so they would get me an appt with a community provider. So about a month after it happened, I got an MRI and the surgery. All is going well now 2 wks after the surgery. Everyone said the operation should have taken place within 2 wks following the injury. Can I anticipate any problems since the wait for the surgery was longer than suggested?
This was very very well done. I think this happened to me today. Lifting something very heavy and heard the pop. I hope i don’t need surgery, I’ll perhaps lose my job. Thanks for posting sir
I had a work injury in 2012, after scanning for 2/3 torn bicpspee under arm, no fat and already 12cm pushed upwards. In Belgium they do not want to operate this? Prof. De Wilde L. (UZ GHENT - Belgium) Tell Flexi - power = 5/5. No surgery is likely to cause nerve damage and stretching of the arm would become brighter to ~ 140 °. ? What must I do ?
I am in the UK and find the attitude is quite different to the American videos/articles you see. No rush or urgency - and if anything seem to be advising against surgery. Like your case they are worried about the risk of nerve damage. It's frustrating :( how did it turn out for you in the end?
I have pain in that area due to bicep curl. My arm is not swollen or nothing blue or any other coloration. But pain is there. I am waiting for a week to heal itself before going to a doctor. Could you please share your experience? Thanks.
@@FilipFcb3 I stopped for a year or two, started again, the pain also started again. But this time i knew the pain isn't the fruits of my labor but because the weakness in my tendons. So, I keep those exercises to minimum and increased the weight very very slowly over the period of 6-8 months. I also used wrist band so that the weight shifts a little bit from my fingers and palm to my wrist. (If you press your fingers in the opposite direction, you will feel the strech on the inner side of the arm near elbow). Other than this to do bicep curl, instead of dumbbells I started with the cable machine where I curled down instead of curling up (usual case with dumbbells), in this way the force wasn't much on my fingers but on my palm and wrist. Seeing various videos like athleanx etc. helped a lot to figure out what can work for me and what doesn't.
@@harshalagrawal03 Thank you for responding. I havr this pain for about 6 months now, stoped doing pull exercise for about 2 months, stsrting back now slowly and doing a low weight on cable curls, trying to strenghten the forearms and the tendons slowly, so im hoping one day i will workout pain free again
I have the pain in that area due to bicep curl. My arm is not swollen or anything like that. But pain is there. I am waiting for a week to heal itself before going to a doctor.
I’m not sure wtf is wrong with mine , it was partially torn apparently distal bicep on forearm , they did ultra sound , 2 years later there’s about inch half gap between middle of arm crease to to the bicep , other good arm the muscle goes to the crease nearly , I’ve asked for MRI as they want do another ultra sound ! Scared to lift any weight at gym and train arms
I felt the POP at the distal tendon about 3 weeks ago while fielding a routine ground ball, no popeye muscle. Very painful , however after 3 weeks I have regained 90-95% of my wrist and arm motion since then. I think I did the hook test on myself and all seems ok, the hook test hurt but otherwise felt ok. Am I on the mend? I don't have insurance, does it sound like I'm healing, or am I just fooling myself? I'd like to start playing again soon. I'm 59.
Pastor Steve I see this happened to you over a year ago how did you bicep turn out , did you go back to playing ball , cause I just did the same thing catching a fly ball
Just snapped mine off on 9/13 by missing a step & held onto a beam on the stairs. Instant pop, hot tear feeling, instant tingling sensation & lost feeling for about 3min. Went to an ER & wasn’t cared for in my opinion. She gave me an X-ray & sent me home saying see your doctor 1-2 wks. I seen my doctor the next day seen orthopedic in 4 days. MRI was done 2 days before surgery & it already resended 6.8cen upward. Surgery was 9/27. So upset at that ER doctor she could of ordered an MRI that morning it is a full working hospital she has the resources, not just send me home saying I’m ok see someone in 1-2wk if it still hurts. I clean rental homes so I needed my arm repaired, it happened on my dominant left arm. What a pain in the butt being one handed. I do have 2 buttons too he said. I get a brace 10/10. I have hard cast in back of arm set at 90° & ace wrap & sling.
Thanks for video..popped mine yesterday heard it pop .May have fractured it to..bicep has slid down about 2 inches "pop eye"..waiting on surgery hopefully...hope everyone had good recover.peace
How was your surgery and recovery? I'm sad to say I'm in the same position you were in 4 months ago. Popped it yesterday, got that "pop eye" look. Were you able to use your arm after surgery? I guess my most important question is would I be able to use a keyboard, since my job involves that pretty much on a daily basis.
@@MENTIONNN sorry to hear you have same injury.Next few weeks just rest it, if you can keep it in sling.Recovery is pretty good make sure you get physio you be fine using keyboard. I'm using weights now building up my arm.I can use it same as I could before, only difference is popeye, always had big arms just looks bigger in t-shirt, but topless there is a gap up by shoulder sort of getting use to it. I pushed for surgery and was lucky to be offered it only thing is I'm still waiting due to covid, they normally dont offer it but told I need surgery on shoulder so there do it plus my arm does cramp up.Good luck on your recovery push for op and physio excercise, even with out surgery your be ok and surprisingly you can still get back near on to full strength..sucked at first but used to it now, just keep working your arm after a month or so!!
@@cosmicpunk891 Thanks for the prompt reply! It seems like in your case the shoulder was injured, too, so that sucks. Did you have a distal biceps rupture or a rupture on the upper tendons between the biceps and the shoulder? Because as far as I know, the distal biceps rupture is related to the tendon attaching the forearm and the biceps.
@@MENTIONNN your welcome.Yea complete rupture of the longhead tendon. which one have you ruptured?. Done extensive research on this injury mainly the longhead rupture and alot of elite sportsman have this and opt out of surgery.My own docter suggested that it can be more problematic as tendon attached else where and can cause problems, hence why alot of people don't get it done.Im opting in though just hope I can still get done.Also with longhead rupture you can work on other muscles in upper arm and shoulder if you bothered about Popeye look or strength so you can easily overcome this injury no matter what out come you have !!..
I’m confused I did something to my arm but nothing so unbelievably painful. My bicep has rolled up top and I now have a gap between the bicep and elbow....however I have zero pain and can still do everything, full range of motion......just uneven arms now
Very helpful video and comments. I injured mine wrestling and then made it worse golfing. It still functions enough. MRI was very uncomfortable. Ortho said no surgery needed. It would be hard for me to go that long with post-op recovery time, missing work. So then I just tore my tricep tendon in same elbow! Considering stem cell treatment. Anyone have some information on stem cell success?
Some visuals of the surgery would've been nice. I'm supposed to be having mine surgically repaired on Monday and Idk what procedure the Dr.s going to use.
@@realitycheckineffect Yes! I did. I had it on the 11th so it's been 18 days post op, now. Even they didn't explain it enough for me. I had to go and do my own research just to find out and that's what led me here.
I passed the hook test and the strength test, but my bicep had migrated 3 cm up my arm. The 'sheath' which surrounds the tendon was still attached, but the tendon had completely ruptured...at least that is my understanding. The surgeon was able to pull the tendon back down through this sheath. One month post op.
@@tiger1259 I went to the physio the same day. He sent me for a MRI the next week. Was over a month before I got to speak to a consultant and another 2 or 3 weeks before my op...there was a delay getting the scan to the consultant which slowed things down. Time is critical with this injury so make sure you keep on top of things - unlike me. In short - Go to hospital as soon as you can and get an MRI. Get ready for a monster bruise too.
I hurt my arm bowling...yes bowling. I threw the ball as hard as I could and felt 3 tears. The bicep is raised a bit but not balled up. I can flex but it does feel weak and hurts a bit when I try to lift things, but this could be bc it hasn't quite healed yet. When I flex my bicep the muscle starts about .5 inch higher up my arm, so there is a flat space between the inner elbow crease and the start of the bicep head. I can do the hook test. Let me know if you have heard about anything like this. The Dr. said I should just let it heal and see.I used to lift weights a lot and have strained my bicep tendon (just sore)but this is totally different. I have zero issues with rotating the palm up and down.A lot of the bruising was running down my forearm from the inner elbow area (funny bone), so I am thinking I tore something more in the forearm area.
TBB5413 The exact same thing happened to me this past Friday evening, "EXACT"!!! I was embarrassed to tell the ER physician. I am a fairly healthy 43 year old and I weight train regularly, how could this happen? I see the orthopedic on Tuesday...
@Kinoble it was a torn bicep Tendon, no MRI needed! The Doc took one look at it and told me to report to surgery the following day! I've had a full recovery since after a, not so bad rehab! It took about a year to feel 100%.... Hang in there and you can definitely recover from it! 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾
Thank you doc! I just injured myself this way 3 days ago and the appointed day for examine is the coming monday, 2 days from now. Then they gonna decide what to do. Should i insist for MRI and what are the last and most advanced methods in the treatment/repair of this trauma? I saw a method, where they make trough hole in the forearm bone and put the tendon in with a stitched pin on the other side, like a locking pin, after they put screw in the hole. Isn't it too invasive and how effective gonna be the recovery? What to do, i don't know. I'm afraid. I'm in Holland. I need to be fully functional and recovered on 100%! This i know, that i want the best treatment of the injury! I need my hand fully recovered and functional as soon as possible! With full strength! I have very physically demanding job. I want it back! 😥
How did it all go for you? I had surgery 11 weeks ago and am still rehabilitating. I’m not back at work yet and won’t be for at least another month. I hope you have recovered and are back working.
@@JaCee501 I pssed a physiotherapy for about mont and a half with freezing, stretching, vibrating massage and gel ultrasound proceadures plus manual massage. I'm still doing perscribed exercises with rubber bands, passed the weak yello and now on the green medium strenght, 4 x 15 reps. It's six monts now and I'm back at work. I fully recovered my arm movement, but still don't have the same strenght! 😑 It's not the same like before. There is always in the back of you head that fear and thin voice "wen is gonna be to much" 😔. I can't push myself to the limit any more. Plus there are some positions and movements in which I feel weakness, ike for example if bended down and trying to lift while flexing from the elbow, in this positiin I feel weakness or when rotating from the elbow, like tightening or untightening a big nut on a stud, also very weak. Feeling like a heat and tingle as well. I hope to regain some more from the power in the comming monts.
I heard like a squirt, almost like an empty catsup squirt bottle squirt but I also read somebody describe it as like stepping on bubble wrap! 🤣That sound for me was very accurate! My surgeon did NOT feel an MRI was necessary, he said the way I described it and how everything looked he was certain, I go into surgery in two days 10/9/2023, it happened 9/29/2023, so surgery 10 days after injury. Wish me luck😬
@@nickmuaythaiandfitness I heard the endo button is a stronger hold and anchor just as good how is it holding up? how was your bicep heeled and looked now I have my surgery this Tuesday thank you for responding to me I’m super stressed about it
@@affordableaquariumservices1663 if you can, definitely be put to sleep. It was like 45 minutes but felt like a second. They sent me home with a lot of pain pills so that helped. I feel near 100% but I lift lighter than I did pre tear just to be on the safe side. Strength is pretty good and the size is getting there. Couple questions, how did you tear it? And.. do you lift regularly and stay in shape? I ask because I was working out consistently for a while and I take testosterone and added a couple things along the way, so that helped a lot to get my size and strength back. Oddly enough my brother also tore his bicep two months before me, and we had the same surgeon lol. He’s 100% natural and he recovered really well too. Within 4-6 months you’ll start feeling really good again. If you have any questions as away. I did well because my brother was still going thru it and almost done with his brace just as tore it.
@@nickmuaythaiandfitness I workout 6 days a week last 20 years. funny thing is it’s a partial tear in my distal bicep I was throwing a heavy rope for my friends dog and I heard a pop. I heard the endo button technique is a lot better than anchor method I have the San Francisco 49er doctor he prefers to do an anchor technique I’m having my surgery this Tuesday. I’m stressed out about it thinking the end of button is the way to go based on Eddie Hall and others who tore their bicep but it’s my third week and I’m scheduled for surgery this Tuesday. We’ll see what happens but I’m glad I found your story and channel to be very helpful
PLEASE HELP!!! My boyfriend more than likely has a distal bicep rupture. And all the hospital would do is xray him then refer him to a hand surgeon who won't be in for 2 WEEKS! it has been a week and a half already and my boyfriend is in agonizing pain. He can't eat or even lay down to attempt to sleep. How do I get him into surgery ASAP??? PLEASE I NEED TO HELP HIM!!!
Tore mine yesterday attempting to do a human flag 🤦♂️. Got that popeye look. I'm going for an MRI/XRay tomorrow and probably surgery shortly thereafter. Hope I can use a keyboard as soon as possible cos of my job. If anyone's had it before, do let me know how it went!
I'm 10 weeks post op and pronation I feel the Endo buttons click slightly. I had 2 Endo buttons put in an no screw. Tendon only attached to bone surface not drilled into the bone
@@BJerrell mine was drilled into the bone.I am a competitive athlete, so I had hypertrophic biceps. Slowly with exercise it gets better and the snapping sensation is gone as well. I'm on my 3rd month post op still not completely healed but there's progress.
Tore mine yesterday, but listening to the comments I wonder how anyone can not know that they tore their bicep. I also can't describe my tare as a pop. It felt like ripping.
I've had no opperation with my left bicept tear and I'm back to about 80% lifting after 8 months. I can see the slight difference in size, but others can't tell unless I mention it....
@@MIGGS32100 Thanks for asking! Yes a complete detachment. No I never got surgery although I truly wanted it, it was too expensive. Strangely now it feels normal at around 85% strength. Once again, it's still noticeable to me but not other's
@@richardsanchez7035 thank you so much for your reply man. That’s great to hear. Mine is a complete rupture as well and I’ve been working out since it happened a month ago. Feels great when I workout out. I’ve taken it lightly with the weights. Do you get occasionally aches in the elbow or shoulder either when you wake up or after using it?
@@MIGGS32100 No pain at all other than the growth of the Onecept. Funny though, the torn muscle however reattached to the elbow and wants to grow too...lol
@@richardsanchez7035 no shit…wow. Were you able to see and feel the tendon move in your bicep? How long has it been since it ruptured? I can see mine move and I can feel it and I’m curious if or how long it will take to attach itself to the tissue. Thanks again man.
