The use of prescription testosterone is associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing a distal biceps tendon injury and subsequently requiring surgical repair.

BACKGROUND: In the United States, the use of testosterone therapy has increased over recent years. Anabolic steroid use has been associated with tendon rupture, although there is a paucity of evidence evaluating the risk of biceps tendon injury (BTI) with testosterone therapy. The aim of this study was to quantify the risk of BTI after the initiation of testosterone therapy.

METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study using the PearlDiver database. Records between 2011 and 2018 were queried to identify patients aged 35-75 years who filled a testosterone prescription for a minimum of 3 months. A control group was created, comprising patients aged 35-75 years who had never filled a prescription for exogenous testosterone. International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, and Current Procedural Terminology codes were used to identify patients with distal biceps injuries and those undergoing surgical repair. Three matching processes were completed: one for the overall cohort, one for the cohort comprising only male patients, and one for the cohort comprising only female patients. Each cohort was matched to its control on age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Index, diabetes, tobacco use, and osteoporosis. Multivariate logistic regression was used to compare rates of distal BTI and subsequent surgical repair in the testosterone groups with their control groups.

RESULTS: A total of 776,974 patients had filled a prescription for testosterone for a minimum of 3 consecutive months. In the overall matched analysis between the testosterone and control groups (n = 291,610 in both), the mean age of the patients was 53.9 years and 23.1% were women. Within 1 year of filling exogenous testosterone prescriptions for a minimum of 3 consecutive months, 650 patients experienced a distal BTI compared with 159 patients in the control group (odds ratio [OR], 4.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.45-4.89; P < .001). At any time after testosterone therapy, patients with testosterone use were more than twice as likely to experience a distal BTI as their matched controls (OR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.94-2.38). Patients who filled prescriptions for testosterone were more likely to undergo surgical repair within a year of the injury compared with the control group. A similar trend was seen in the cohort comprising male patients (OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.29-2.07).

CONCLUSION: Patients with prior prescription testosterone exposure have an increased rate of BTI and biceps tendon repair compared with patients without such exposure. This finding provides insight into the risk profile of testosterone therapy, and doctors should consider counseling patients about this risk, particularly male patients.