Abstract

Acromioclavicular joint dislocations accounts for about 12% of shoulder girdle injuries. However, there is no gold standard procedure for surgical treatment of acute high- grade AC joint injury. Recently, the endobutton technique has been elucidated for the treatment of AC-joint dislocation. Hence, we employed this technique and analyzed its outcome. Material & Method: 24 patients aged between 20-65 years with acute Type III–VI AC joint dislocation were included in the study. Radiograph of both clavicle anteroposterior (AP) stress view was obtained to diagnose. All patients were treated with tight loop endobutton technique. Postoperative rehabilitation regimen was followed for all the patients. Outcome was assessed using VAS, UCLA score, DASH score and AP radiograph of affected side at regular intervals. Result: A higher prevalence of males was observed (83.3%) with mean age of 37.5 ± 12.5 years. RTA was the most common cause of injury. For clinical outcome, the mean post- operative VAS was 0.35 ± 0.48 and mean postoperative UCLA score was 29.5. 8 patients had excellent results and 16 patients had good results according to UCLA score. DASH score decreased gradually postoperatively, with significant improvement starting from the third month post-surgery. Radiologically loss of reduction was observed in only 5 cases. Conclusion: Tight loop Endobutton technique is a simple, cost-effective, one-time surgery which restores the coraco-clavicular (CC) interval and maintains it till the native ligaments heal. It proves to be an excellent alternative modality to treat the AC joint dislocation.

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