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

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.