The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the relative contributions of various soft tissue structures in maintaining the biceps tendon within the bicipital groove.
The bicipital groove and the superior portion of the biceps tendon at the upper border of the groove were identified, and their positions were recorded using the Microscribe Digitizer (Immersion Corp.
At all these positions, the position of the biceps tendon relative to the bicipital groove was recorded.
After data was collected, all soft tissue about the bicipital groove was removed from the humerus, and the morphology of the bicipital groove was recorded with the Microscribe Digitizer.
In the 11 intact specimens, the biceps tendon excursion within the bicipital groove ranged from 0.
One of these specimen demonstrated a visible dislocation of the tendon from the bicipital groove.
In fact, with the exception of one THL sectioned specimen whose bicipital groove was the most shallow at 2.
Finally, as mentioned above, one of the specimens with ST sectioning demonstrated a frank dislocation of the biceps tendon from the bicipital groove at certain positions.
8) In our experiments, however, the ST was clearly the most important stabilizer of the tendon, and isolated sectioning of the CHL or the THL produced only minimal excursion of the tendon within the bicipital groove.
