UKC

Hi All,

Unfortunately Ive suffered a complete rupture of the distal (bottom end of the bicep) bicep tendon, this has been confirmed by ultrasound scan. 

Ive been given the choice of surgery or just leaving to rehab with a % loss of strength in supination (rotating palms up) and flexion (bicep curl). The window for surgery is now rapidly closing and in the future will be more complicated requiring a tendon graft to be successful .

I have been recommended surgery but had a cheeky climb earlier and was surprised at what I could manage.

I would be very interested to hear from any one who has experienced this injury and their recovery rates or from anybody who continued to climb without surgery.

Thanks in advance for any replies

In reply to alfmeister:

I snapped mine at the elbow end the same. I am surprised you needed an ultra scan as the consultant I saw said it was very obvious - the bicep contracts up near the shoulder and there's a big indent at the middle/elbow end. There is no way I could have climbed 

I had the operation to reattach it which as you say there is a narrow window for, I was told 3 weeks. For me it was then in plaster for 6 weeks. I was surprised how much movement I had lost when it came out of plaster. Then some physio and gradually resistance bands and weights building up over 3 or 4 months. I guess I climbed after about 6 months. I think that was cautious but I didnt want to repeat. I was curling 12kg x10 after ~4 months which was pretty much the sameas the 'good arm'. This was about 5 years ago and its been fine since 

In reply to alfmeister:

I had the same injury and, like you, was able to still climb on it.  What I couldn't do was hold anything out at arms length or turn my hand over to receive change etc.  I guess it comes down to age (I was <40) and what you want to get from climbing / future use of the arm.

I had surgery 11 days after doing it (it was an endo button repair) and was in a sling out of surgery with some proper pain killers.  Several months of physio and I got pretty much full range of movement back and was climbing and pulling on it once fully mended as hard as before.

That was 8 years ago and no regrets.  If you're Manchester based then I can recommend Adam Watts as a surgeon.

In reply to alfmeister:

Didnt Dave Birkett do that whilst climbing Bleed in Hell?? 

I know that he didn't have any op on it and he continued to put up a few more HVS's 😉

In reply to alfmeister: I snapped my right distal bicep tendon - no need for scan it was super obvious. Operated on very quickly 3 -4weeks. 6 weeks in cast. Was climbing again very soon after. Rehabbed quickly. Been climbing for 12years since with no problems no loss of strength.

In reply to alfmeister:

Just for academic interest, are any of you smokers?

In reply to DizzyT: no but I did quite a bit of chalk climbing- miuch more dangerous to your health 😅

In reply to alfmeister:

Big Thank you for all the replies, looks like some encouraging outcomes there.

Hopefully will be the same for me as I will be going down the surgery route.

 Dizzy - Non smoker here too 

In reply to alfmeister:

I suffered a full rupture of the long head bicep tendon (so, the other end of the muscle) in April of last year.

My doc was great in laying out the options, pros and cons of each and the like.  I went for the surgery and am absolutely glad that I did.

The doc had done corrections on the long head bicep (obvs different to yours) as late as a year after initial rupture but with diminishing levels of success.  My surgery was scheduled for right around four weeks after the initial injury.  I had a few weeks of being extraordinarily careful to not overdo anything; then a couple of months of recovery.

I actually went six full months without climbing (injury; then one month to surgery; then five months to heal) which I know is longer than many folks would be able to wait.  Now, six months later, I'm back to climbing stronger than I was before the injury.

I know the two ends of the bicep are very different but if you want to ask more about my experience please feel free to drop me a message.