Summary:
The reconstruction of the distal biceps tendon rupture has been an upcoming and challenging issue in the orthopedic society for the last few years. The increase on human needs, especially those of middle-aged people followed by the tremendous steps-forward of the reconstruction hardware have set the landmark for better and sooner recovery of distal biceps tendon rupture and return of people in their previous activity. New reconstruction methods contribute in minimizing some of the complications reported when using the old-fashioned ways of recovery. Even if the conservative method of recovery is still present and preferred in patients that are not in good condition to undergo a reconstructive surgery, the indication is that the immediate (after the injury) surgical reconstruction of the ruptured tendon remains the gold standard for this kind of injuries. The best recovery procedure is the one, which provides full anatomic repositioning of the tendon in combination with small possibility of complications followed by early mobilization of the injured upper limb.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate a series of cases of distal biceps tendon ruptures in Greek athletes. The total evaluation consists of analyzing the injury, setting the clinical diagnosis, the decision and description of the surgical reconstruction method and the followed recovery program, with monitoring the patient in a time that varies from two to eight years post-operatively.
METHOD
The sample of our study consists of eight Greek athletes who exercise systematically their athletic activities and with ages varying from 22 to 35 years of age. The participants are generally in good physical health and their only bother is their ruptured distal biceps tendon.
The goal of this study is to analyze the effect and outcome of a specific type of surgical reconstruction we performed in the patients and to evaluate the degree of recovery (anatomic and functional) in them. The patients came to our hospital and underwent the specific surgical reconstruction we describe followed by our physiotherapy program. Afterwards, we evaluated the range of movement of the injured upper limb in flexion-extension and supination-pronation, the pain they feel measured in VAS scale and the torque power they can produce in flexion-extension and supination-pronation. The same measurements made for the contralateral side. Then we compared the two sides to spot the differences. All the measurements mentioned above also made in a control group with the same physical characteristics (age, degree of athletic performance, limb dominance) with our sample and the findings compared with those of our sample.
Our data underwent statistical analysis with Statistical Package SPSS 17. The first level of analysis consisted of descriptive statistics for all the groups in the sample. Then the analysis moved in testing the normality of our sample followed by paired t-test comparisons of all the associated groups. The level of significance is set to p<0,05.
DISCUSSION
The findings of the present study have shown that the athletes underwent the specific reconstructive surgery of their distal biceps tendon rupture had not statistically significant differences compared to people of the population with the same physical characteristics in the parameters we choosed to study as well as in the total functionality of their injured limb. This makes them capable of returning to their full activity they had before the time of the injury.
