Biceps Tenodesis

Your prescription for pain medication will be given to you before you leave the surgery center. After the first day or two, as the pain lessens, you may decrease the frequency with which you take the medication. Remember, the medications are not necessarily meant to completely eliminate your pain, only to make it more bearable.  Narcotic pain medications can cause constipation; you may wish to use an over-the-counter stool softener to help prevent this.  

MEDICATION REFILL POLICY: Refills on prescription medications are processed Monday through Friday 8:30am-5pm. New prescriptions or refills cannot be issued after hours, on weekends or holidays.

Please request refill through the patient portal on www.fvortho.com. If you are not currently registered on our portal, please stop at the front desk for assistance or contact the portal help desk at 630-524-0140

After requesting the refill, please allow 24-48 hours for your request to be processed. It may be wise to contact your pharmacy to ensure that the prescription is ready.

It is helpful to use ice or a cold therapy unit to decrease pain and swelling.  For the first few days after surgery, please try to ice at least 5 times daily, for 20 min each time. If you have an ice therapy unit, you are encouraged to keep the ice unit on as much as possible for the first 48 hours.

If you are having minimal pain and would like to switch to a milder medication, please take Tylenol/acetaminophen (extra strength or regular).  Do not take Tylenol and norco together (this would be too much acetaminophen).  Do not exceed more than 4000mg of Tylenol/acetaminophen in a 24 hour period.  Try to avoid medications such as Advil, Aleve, Motrin, or Ibuprofen for about 3 months after surgery- some studies show that these medications could slow healing of your surgical repair. 

You will have a soft dressing applied over your incisions. It is meant to absorb any leaking blood or fluid from the joint, and to protect from infection. Leakage immediately after surgery is normal and actually helps to drain some of the fluid that accumulates in the joint during surgery. The dressings may become moist or blood-stained; this is normal and usually not a cause for alarm.

You may remove your dressing 48 hours after your surgery to take a shower. For showering, you may remove your entire sling and let your arm rest at your side. Under the surgical dressing, you may have steri-strips over your incisions (small white strips of tape). Please leave them in place until they fall off on their own or until they are removed at your first post-op appointment. You may let soap and water gently wash over your incisions, but do not scrub them. Pat them dry with a towel, then recover each of the incisions with a band-aid if desired. You may not soak your shoulder in a bathtub or go into a pool or hot tub until incisions are well healed (usually takes a few weeks).

Therapy typically starts 3-7 days after surgery.  The timing for when you begin physical therapy will be individualized based on your surgery.  

Your first post-op visit will be scheduled 7-10 days after surgery. At this visit, we’ll check your incisions and answer any questions you may have.

Please call our office at (630) 584-1400 if you develop a fever greater than 101°F, increasing pain that is not responding to pain medication, redness around incisions or shoulder, increased swelling, persistent bleeding or drainage, or drainage other than clear fluid or blood. If it is after hours, the answering service will contact the physician assistant on call.

It is normal to develop bruising to the operative arm. Some people have bruising across the chest all the way down to the hand. It can also be normal to develop swelling to the arm and hand. Gravity tends to pull fluid down the arm. Your body will be able to reabsorb this fluid but it may take a few weeks. If the swelling becomes increasingly painful and more tender to the touch, please let our office know.

DVT information sheet

Please click on DVT information sheet to learn more about deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and prevention

You will be receiving a post-operative phone call from the surgical staff within a few days after surgery to check on you and assist you with any concerns.

You will be receiving a post-operative phone call from the surgical staff within a few days after surgery to check on you and assist you with any concerns.

Please do not attempt driving for about 3-4 weeks after surgery. This is for your safety, as well as other drivers- please do not attempt to drive with only one hand. Reasons for no driving post operatively: A quick, reactive motion of the shoulder while driving could damage your surgical repair. Secondly, you should not drive while taking any narcotic pain medications.

The sling you are given will depend on what other surgery was performed at the time of your biceps tenodesis.  The sling type, and duration of use will be customized based on this information.  Typically the sling is worn only 3 weeks after an isolated biceps tenodesis.

*If you also had a rotator cuff repair or labral repair along with your biceps tenodesis, please follow the healthy-txt sling instructions for that surgical procedure*

You may gently bend and straighten your elbow, keeping your upper arm near the body.  Do not lift shoulder out in front of body, out to your side, or reach behind your back until your physical therapist has progressed you to that point in therapy.  Usually, it is 4 weeks before you’ll be moving the shoulder on your own. 

It is ok to gently bend your elbow and use your hand to do things like typing (as long as your shoulder stays near your body).  For example, you should put a computer keyboard in your lap instead of reaching out on a table for your keyboard). Initially in therapy, your therapist will do “passive motions,” which means your muscles won’t be doing the work.  This protects your surgical repair and allows your body to heal.  

If you had only a biceps tenodesis, you should try to sleep with sling on for 2-4 weeks.  If you had another other procedure along with your biceps tenodesis (such as rotator cuff repair or labral repair), please follow those sleeping instructions on Dr. Petsche’s healthy-txt site.

This depends on the nature of your job. If you have a desk job or can work from home, you may be able to do computer/phone work within 1 week of surgery. However, you may not drive yourself to work until your doctor or PA has told you to discontinue the sling.

If you have a labor-intense job, or job that requires heavy lifting/repetitive use of your arm, you may need to be off work for months. You will have restrictions for at least 3-4 months after your biceps tenodesis. Some employers allow light-duty, and we can give you work restriction notes at each post operative visit if necessary.

Dr. Petsche Biceps Tenodesis