Arthroscopic acromioclavicular joint reconstruction using a synthetic ligament device

Purpose To describe an all-arthroscopic treatment of acromioclavicular joint (ACJ) dislocation and report the clinical results of the procedure. Methods This study consisted of 54 patients of whom 49 were men and 5 were women. The age of the patients averaged 39 years (range 16–69 years). All the symptomatic acute and chronic acromioclavicular joint dislocations classified according to Rockwood type III–IV were included in the study. All of them underwent standard clinical and radiological examination. Result All the patients were regularly followed up at the institute with the average follow-up being 15.09 months (range 5–30 months). The results were assessed using the shoulder subjective value (SSV) and the Modified rating of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) for acromioclavicular joint. The mean pre-operative SSV improved from 35.65 to the post-operative value of 88.6. According to the UCLA scale, 40 excellent, 8 good, 4 fair and 2 poor results were achieved. There were few problems encountered with the procedure like failure of ligament, incomplete reduction, capsulitis, and migration of sleeve and fracture clavicle. Conclusion ACJ dislocations can effectively be treated with arthroscopy-assisted procedure. Since this procedure has given uniformly good to excellent results comparable to open reconstructive procedures, it can be a good treatment option for symptomatic ACJ dislocations. Level of evidence IV, therapeutic series.