Shoulder issues

[bjstephani]

I recently had a SLAP tear of my labrum fixed. I have some retained sutures tying all that stuff back together. From what I can find, as long as I get my strength and full range of motion back, it won't disqualify me from flying. Now I am facing another procedure where they might have to cut my biceps tendon and attach it to my arm bone. I can't find anything about this procedure being disqualifying so I figure it gets treated like the SLAP tear. Could somebody weigh in with their flight surgeon wisdom?

 

[feddoc]

flight surgeon and wisdom......nope
In general, after any surgical procedure as long as the patient has full ROM and is asymptomatic and has none to easily managed pain, you likely will find no problems.

What happened to cause your biceps tendon to tear?

 

[whitesoxnation]

I recently had a SLAP tear of my labrum fixed. I have some retained sutures tying all that stuff back together. From what I can find, as long as I get my strength and full range of motion back, it won't disqualify me from flying. Now I am facing another procedure where they might have to cut my biceps tendon and attach it to my arm bone. I can't find anything about this procedure being disqualifying so I figure it gets treated like the SLAP tear. Could somebody weigh in with their flight surgeon wisdom?

Shoulders suck. I blew mine out playing ball. All of my physicals were basically a strength test... put your arms out dont let me push them down, dont let me pull them out, how many pullups can you do, how many pushups can you do, etc. Biggest thing that happend was they wanted an x-ray.

Maybe it was the best thing that happend to me, b/c I couldnt play so I quit my college team and was able to focus on aviation.

 

[WheelsUpHeelsUp]

No fun, I've had both mine rebuilt, rotator cuff tears and labrum fixed 4 and 5 years ago. After about a year I was almost normal EXCEPT I can't throw a baseball or football worth a F*** anymore.

Full range and they feel great still, the therapy is TORTURE.

 

[bjstephani]

Thanks everyone for your replies. My bicep tendon isn't torn. With sutures on both sides of the tendon where it attaches to the labrum, my doc thinks that it's not rotating properly with my arm bone. This causes the tendon to slip out of it's place on the arm bone and not allowing me to lift my arm out infront of me. He is thinking about cutting the tendon and reattaching it to my arm bone somewhere in my arm-pit area. Sorry for the non-medical terms but that's what I know. I am really going to be cutting it close with the rehab and getting my commission by 27. Anyone ever heard of a few month age waiver given out?

 

[MSkinsATC]

One of the Doc's will have to correct me if I am wrong, seeing as it has been about 3 years since I have been in the field, but I believe the Biceps Tendon origin is the glenoid tuberosity (long head) and the coracoid process (short head) not actually on the labrum. The tendon itself runs through the Bicipital groove (held in by a ligament??? I think). I remember one of our football players having similar problems with the Biceps tendon slipping, and he had easy surgery where they "beefed up"/replaced the ligament...not completely reattached the tendon!!! Of course this is mearly something to keep in mind and any of the Doc's can correct me or just plain tell me I am wrong, just wanted to throw that out there, like I said it has been a while! Good Luck