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Our Totally Intra-Articular “Needle-Anchor” Tenodesis Technique Applied in Isolated Long Head of the Biceps Tendinopathy: Clinical and Functional Results in 60 Patients

Background: The disorders of the long head of the biceps (LHB) are a common cause of shoulder pain. Among all surgical treatments used to resolve LHB tendon disorders, tenodesis is one of the most frequent. The literature describes many arthroscopic and open surgical techniques, but there is still no general consensus on the standard of care. The purpose of this paper is to describe the clinical and functional outcomes of our totally intra-articular “Needle-Anchor” arthroscopic tenodesis technique applied to isolated LHB tendinopathy. Materials and Methods: We present a case study of 60 patients with an isolated LHB tendon disorder, treated with our totally intra-articular Needle-Anchor arthroscopic technique between 2011 and 2013. All patients were assessed preoperatively with University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Constant-Murley (CS) shoulder scores and the visual analogue scale (VAS) for subjective pain assessment. Imaging studies were performed through magnetic resonance imaging. Patients were reevaluated with a follow-up at 3 and 12 months with VAS, UCLA, and CS scores. Statistical analysis was performed with the Mann-Whitney score where values of P<0.05 were considered as significant. Results: CS showed a significant (P<0.05) improvement at 3 and 12 months follow-up, 81.54±7.5 and 88.90±5.2, respectively; when compared with preoperative values of 55.14±9.8. Moreover, the UCLA score showed significant improvement (P<0.05) at the same follow-ups with values of 28.49±2.1 and 30.88±1.7, respectively, with preoperative scores of 14.03±2.4. VAS values were significant at both follow-ups, 2.54±0.2 and 0.58±0.08, respectively, when compared with preoperative values of 5.34±0.3. Conclusions: Biceps tenodesis performed with our Needle-Anchor technique applied to selected patients affected by isolated LHB pathology demonstrated to be effective both in terms of pain and functionality. Moreover, the described technique proved to be reliable, safe, time efficient, easily reproducible, and preserving cosmesis.