What Is Biceps Tenodesis?
The long biceps tendon (see left) comes up the humerus bone and sits in a groove. It attaches to the top of the joint where the labrum lives. In a biceps tenodesis, the surgeon disconnects the long head of the biceps tendon from its attachment at the top of the shoulder joint socket. The tendon is then reattached elsewhere, often anchored lower down in its groove.
Sometimes this is done in older patients because the tendon is inflamed, often during a rotator cuff repair surgery. Another reason this procedure is performed is in a younger patient with a SLAP tear of the labrum. The labrum is the lip of the socket where the ball of the shoulder joint fits. The top of this area is called the superior labrum, and a tear here is often given the acronym SLAP. The concept behind both of these procedures is that they take pressure off the biceps tendon itself, or in the latter instance, this takes pressure off the healing superior labral tear.
What Are Biceps Tenodesis Side Effects?
This is a surgery, so side effects include infection, failure of the new biceps tendon anchor, chronic pain, and so on. In one recent publication, common biceps tenodesis side effects were listed as cosmetic deformity of the arm (pop-eye biceps), cramping or soreness in the biceps muscle, and loss of biceps strength to bend the elbow or supinate the forearm.
Does This Need to Be Done?
The only way to tell if biceps tenodesis is effective is to perform studies where people are randomized into groups where the tendon is cut or not (sham surgery) and then measure outcomes. Regrettably, like the rest of orthopedic surgery, there are few such studies. In fact, I could only find one. The results of that study show me that it’s unlikely that this procedure would be more broadly effective when compared with a fake surgery.
This new study looked at patients who had a type-2 SLAP tear. In this very common type of tear, the rim of the biceps attachment at the larum is torn, see table below for more details:
This study had three groups. One that was assigned to sham surgery (nothing was done), one that had a SLAP repair (sewing or anchoring the tear back together), and a third group that had a biceps tenodesis to take pressure off of the superior labral tear so it could heal. The outcome? There was no difference between either the SLAP repair or the tenodesis from the sham or fake surgery. Meaning both the SLAP repair and the tenodesis procedure were no better than no surgery.
With Interventional Orthopedics It’s Time to Relegate Most Tenodesis Surgeries to the Dustbin of Medical History
Today, in my experience, we can precisely inject agents that will cause healing of these tears or the irritated and damaged tendon without the need to rip the tendon from its attachment. Hence, most biceps tenodesis surgeries should soon go away. These newer procedures often use platelet-rich plasma or bone marrow concentrate injected into the tears. In addition, they have much faster recovery times and are much less invasive, so this means far fewer side effects.
A word of caution, performing this type of injection under imaging guidance is an advanced interventional orthopedic skill. That means that an orthopedic surgeon or the average physician who injects PRP or stem cells is very unlikely to have the expertise to perform this procedure. In addition, it helps to have both ultrasound guidance and fluoroscopy available to perform the procedure correctly. If you have any questions about which providers are trained to perform this procedure, we keep a list of our Regenexx providers who have mastered this delicate injection, and the IOF (a nonprofit—Interventional Orthopedics Foundation) also maintains a list of providers who have passed their advanced shoulder coursework. To learn more about advanced shoulder injection procedures, see my video below:
The upshot? Why would you sign up to have your biceps tendon chopped off and then screwed back into bone and risk biceps tenodesis side effects when the research doesn’t show that this procedure is any better than a fake surgery? In the meantime, precise injections into the irritated tendon or into the SLAP tear can usually reduce pain and get you back to functioning again!
Tendon reattachment and repair of rotator cuff tears was done on my right shoulder three years ago. Some loss of mobility and a slight change in the biceps shape were the only lasting aftereffects. The left tendon is now inflamed, from the same arthritis, SLAP tear, and small rotator cuff tears on my left shoulder. It would be nice to get treatment for those conditions without surgery. An MRI of the shoulder was obtained, but the MRI interpretation did not agree with the MDs interpretation, so I’m stalled in my investigation of stem cell therapy.
At a Physical Therapy in-service, a doctor once proudly announced to our group that, in the case of Tenodesis Surgery, “the biceps doesn’t it has been transferred”. I tacitly agreed; that is the problem!
In post-surgical rehab, we could strengthen the biceps – no problem. Yet our patients complained of pain when reaching to shake someone’s hand. Why? Because “the biceps doesn’t it has been transferred”. The first function of the long head of the biceps is to initiate shoulder flexion. If you are going to flex your shoulder, the muscle you use must, absolutely must, cross the shoulder joint. Unfortunately, because “the biceps doesn’t it has been transferred”, your body will try to use the long head of the biceps to initiate flexion, but it can’t because it no longer is a shoulder joint muscle. The harder it tries, the harder it pulls on the point the surgeon anchored it to the humerus. The inevitable result is pain and even tearing at the surgical stapling.
The only treatment I found to be effective are the type of exercises developed by Moshe Feldenkrais to develop awareness to help the body find a new way to initiate shoulder flexion.
greetings, I’m a healthy, active 48 yr old female, 3 weeks post op rotater cuff, biceps tenodesis repair. my 2 nd rotator repair on same shoulder. 4 anchors 1 titanium button. i work on telephone poles and fear i won’t be able to return to my job. PT has me ONLY small, slow stretching exercises. I fear with a realistically return of 50-70% im told. if there are any exercises i can do to strengthen my overhead work requirements down the road,i would greatly appreciate it. Jenee
Hi Jenee,
Do you know whether they did an acromioplasty with either of the surgeries? It is often done…
Hi there…just wondering about this surgery as I am having it performed in March. My tendon is torn and hanging by a “thread” so it seems like this is my only option. what are the percentages of people getting popeye arm after surgery? I only have the one arm from birth also.
thank you.
Hi Pam,
We don’t have information on the percentage of patients who developed that deformity in the study, but as to whether this surgery is your only option, we’d need more information. Please see: https://regenexx.com/blog/watch-advanced-image-guided-injection-shoulder-step-procedure-suite-dr-schultz/ and https://regenexx.com/conditions-treated/shoulder/ To have us weigh in on your particular case, please submit the candidate form here: http://www.regenexx.com.
Do not agree to the procedure under any, I repeat, ANY circumstances. I will explain why later. I had one done. Terrible results.
I used to play a lot of rugby and I ended up messing up my right shoulder. It all started as a pain in the front of the shoulder, which hurts when I run or use force. After years of constant therapy, wich did helped until I suffered a dislocation, this was the moment when doctors said that I should go for a surgery.
I did an arthrogram and it showed that the Labrum is teared and that the fibrillation of the articular face of the anterior margin of the supraspinatus has a partial articular rupture of low grade.
I went to 3 different doctor, the first one of them reccomended a Latarjet, but both of the others said that it was excesive. The second one said that I should only get an arthroscopy of the labrum. And the third one that I should get the arthroscopy plus a tenodesis of the biceps.
Is there any way I can avoid surgery with stem cells?
Hi Jorge,
Likely, but we’d need more information through the Candidacy process. Please see: https://regenexx.com/blog/watch-advanced-image-guided-injection-shoulder-step-procedure-suite-dr-schultz/ https://regenexx.com/blog/shoulder-dislocation-surgery-recovery-time/ and https://regenexx.com/blog/shoulder-labrum-surgery-side-effects/ To do that, please submit the “Am I a Candidate” form here: http://www.regenexx.com , or give us a call at 855 622 7838 for assistance with that process.
So I had that surgery do for osteoarthritis in my shoulder. He cut the bicep muscle and anchored it to the ball in my shoulder. Both shoulders were done this way as well as cutting a portion of my clavicle bone off. I live in chronic pain daily. I fear going back to a dr because I’m scared of more surgeries. I really do not know what to do to cure this pain Many days I cannot lift my arms over my head. I do the stretches my physical therapist suggested. But that does not take the pain away.