Egbert JD Veen, Andrew Ker, Jashint Maharaj, Kenneth Cutbush, Ashish Gupta
Early primary anatomical repair after distal biceps tendon (DBT) rupture is indicated in active patients to restore loss in forearm supination and elbow flexion strength.5 Occasionally, DBT ruptures are not initially recognized or there is a delay in clinical presentation.
Chronicity of a DBT tear has been linked to worsening atrophy, shortening, retraction, and fibrosis of the biceps muscle, making primary anatomical repair challenging.4 In symptomatic patients, different allografts have been used to reconstruct the DBT with good reported clinical outcomes.
Autograft utilisation potentially reduces surgical costs and host rejection; however, it is associated with morbidity at the donor site. Here we present a surgical technique for using the proximal long head of biceps autograft to augment a chronic DBT rupture.