Triceps Tendons Injuries

What are Triceps Tendons Injuries?

The triceps is a tripinnate muscle, meaning it is made up of three parts–the long, medial, and lateral heads. It extends the elbow and allows the arm to be held in place in space. The triceps originates on the humerus and runs down the upper arm where it attaches to the olecranon process of the ulna. The triceps tendon can get tendonitis or suffer a frank rupture. Both can look similar. Furthermore, a rupture is often not ‘complete’ and can confuse the diagnosis.

Symptoms & Causes

Inflammation of the triceps as it inserts on the olecranon tip, which causes pain on the tip of the elbow and weakness. This inflammation is likely not an inflammatory state, but rather a degenerative one (like tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow).

Affected Populations

Most often, males that participate in vigorous activity suffer from triceps tendon injuries. Common injury mechanisms include weight lifting, football, or heavy manual labor.  It is typically caused by an eccentric load on an outstretched arm.

Treatment

Loss of extension strength of the elbow is helpful for diagnosis but is not always present. Often, the triceps is incompletely ruptured, and some extension is possible. An MRI or ultrasound will make a definitive diagnosis. In those individuals with less than a 50% rupture in children and the non-athlete, we can treat a rupture using physical therapy with excellent results. However, those with significant ruptures or athletes are generally treated with surgical repair.