After failed conservative management, operative intervention is typically indicated for patients with partial-thickness rotator cuff tears (PTRCTs) with persistent pain and disability symptoms.For PTRCTs involving < 50% of the tendon thickness, debridement with or without acromioplasty resulted in favourable outcomes in most studies.For PTRCTs involving > 50% of the tendon thickness, in situ repair has proven to significantly improve pain and functional outcomes for articular and bursal PTRCTs.The few available comparative studies in the literature showed similar functional and structural outcomes between in situ repair and repair after conversion to full-thickness tear for PTRCTs.Most non-overhead athletes return to sports at the same level as previous to the injury after in situ repair of PTRCTs. However, rates of return to preinjury level of competition for overhead athletes have been generally poor regardless of the utilized technique.During long-term follow-up, arthroscopic in situ repair of articular and bursal PTRCTs produced excellent functional outcomes in most patients, with a low rate of revision. Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2020;5:138-144. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.5.190010.

OBJECTIVE: To review current literature on types of distal triceps injury and determine diagnosis and appropriate management.
METHODS: We performed a systematic review in PubMed, Cochrane and EMBASE using the terms distal triceps tears and snapping triceps on the 10th January 2017. We excluded all animal, review, foreign language and repeat papers. We reviewed all papers for relevance and of the papers left we were able to establish the types of distal triceps injury, how these injuries are diagnosed and investigated and the types of management of these injuries including surgical. The results are then presented in a review paper format.
RESULTS: Three hundred and seventy-nine papers were identified of which 65 were relevant to distal triceps injuries. After exclusion we had 47 appropriate papers. The papers highlighted 2 main distal triceps injuries: Distal triceps tears and snapping triceps. Triceps tear are more common in males than females occurring in the 4th-5th decade of life and often due to a direct trauma but are also strongly associated with weightlifting and American football. The tears are diagnosed by history and clinically with a palpable gap. Diagnosis can be confirmed with the use of ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging. Treatment depends on type of tear. Partial tears can be treated conservatively with bracing and physio whereas acute tears need repair either open or arthroscopic using suture anchor or bone tunnel techniques with similar success. Chronic tears often need augmenting with tendon allograft or autograft. Snapping triceps are also seen more in men than women but at a mean age of 32 years. They are characterized by a snapping sensation mostly medially and can be associated with ulna nerve subluxation and ulna nerve symptoms. US is the diagnostic modality of choice due to its dynamic nature and to differentiate between snapping triceps tendon or ulna nerve. Treatment is conservative initially with activity avoidance and if that fails surgical management includes resection of triceps edge or transposition of the tendon plus or minus ulna nerve transposition.
CONCLUSIONS: Distal triceps injuries are uncommon. This systematic review examines the evidence base behind diagnosis, imaging and treatment options of distal triceps injuries including tears and snapping triceps.