Electromyography of the Pectoralis Major Muscle after Surgical Reconstruction of Chronic Tendon Rupture

Objective To evaluate the electrophysiological activity of the injured pectoralis major (PM) muscle of operated patients who perform weightlifting, more specifically bench press exercises, especially the activity of the clavicular and sternocostal portions of the PM. Methods All athletes in study I (10 patients) had unilateral complete ruptures during bench press exercises and a history of use of anabolic steroids, an association that is described in up to 86.7% of PM tendon ruptures. The control group included 10 men without PM tendon injury who did not perform bench press exercises. Description of the cross-sectional design. The p -values were obtained by multiple comparisons with Bonferroni correction. Results In the comparison between the control (C) group and the weightlifters during the postoperative period (POS), we found no evidence of differences in any measurements obtained in the clavicular and sternocostal portions of the PM muscle: clavicular average level ( p = 0.847); clavicular standard deviation (SD) ( p = 0.777); clavicular area ( p = 0.933); clavicular median ( p = 0.972); sternocostal average level ( p = 0.633); sternocostal SD ( p = 0.602); sternocostal area ( p = 0.931); and sternocostal median ( p = 0.633). Conclusion In the present study, the electromyographic activity of the PM muscle in weightlifters (bench press exercise) who underwent surgery was within the normal parameters for the clavicular and sternocostal portions studied.