Introduction: Ideal treatment of chronic distal triceps rupture is controversial due to low occurrence of this injury. We report a unique case of chronic traumatic distal triceps rupture which was missed initially and then treated by tension band wiring.
Case report: A 30-year-old manual labor presented with 2-month-old injury and difficulty in complete extension of the elbow which was initially managed conservatively. He was clinic-radiologically diagnosed as complete distal triceps bony avulsion tear. He was operated using tension band wiring technique. His DASH score at the end of 2-year follow-up was 5.4 indicating excellent outcome.
Conclusion: A strong clinical suspicion should be raised about triceps injury in patients with chronic elbow pain and weak extension. Tension band wiring technique gives good clinical and functional outcome in patients with bony avulsion along with distal triceps tear.
Keywords: Triceps rupture; chronic elbow pain; modified Campbell Thompson test; tension band wiring.
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