eMedicine Specialties > Emergency Medicine > Trauma & Orthopedics

Acromioclavicular Injury: Follow-up

Author: Moira Davenport, MD, Attending Physician, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery, Allegheny General Hospital
Coauthor(s): Joseph Kim, MD, Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine, Western Medical Center; Clinical Instructor, University of California at Irvine
Contributor Information and Disclosures

Updated: Apr 1, 2008

Follow-up

Further Inpatient Care

  • AC injuries requiring ORIF should be repaired within 2 weeks of the time of injury. Unless other injuries are sustained, these patients do not require admission on the day of injury.

Further Outpatient Care

  • Following discharge, orthopedic surgical follow-up is mandatory for type III-VI injuries and is recommended in all pediatric injuries.

Deterrence/Prevention

  • General safety precautions are the best method of preventing AC injuries. Football shoulder pads may decrease the extent of an injury but by no means prevent AC injuries.

Complications

  • Cosmetic deformity
  • Accelerated osteoarthrosis
  • Decreased shoulder range of motion/upper extremity strength
  • Distal clavicle osteolysis

Prognosis

  • Patients with type I injuries may usually return to sports in 1-2 weeks.
  • Patients with type II injuries usually require a longer period of recovery, but patients can usually return to sports in 2-4 weeks. Reports exist of patients with type II injuries who continue to experience some subjective loss of strength up to 3 years after injury.

Miscellaneous

Medicolegal Pitfalls

  • Failure to document neurological, vascular, or other associated injuries is the primary error in the assessment of AC joint injuries.

Special Concerns

  • Although the majority of studies comparing surgical management to conservative management of type III AC injuries have suggested that conservative management produces superior functional results, additional consideration for surgical intervention should be given to specific patient groups such as throwing athletes, manual laborers, and soldiers, who may receive greater benefit from an operative intervention than the general population.
 
Acknowledgments

The authors and editors of eMedicine gratefully acknowledge the contributions of previous author, Cappi Lay, MD, to the development and writing of this article.



More on Acromioclavicular Injury

Overview: Acromioclavicular Injury
Differential Diagnoses & Workup: Acromioclavicular Injury
Treatment & Medication: Acromioclavicular Injury
Follow-up: Acromioclavicular Injury
Multimedia: Acromioclavicular Injury
References
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Further Reading

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Keywords

acromioclavicular injury, acromioclavicular joint separation, acromioclavicular joint, AC, ACJ, acromioclavicular joint injuries, AC joint injuries, ACJ injuries, clavicular displacement, pediatric AC joint injury, shoulder injury, shoulder dislocation, clavicle dislocation, clavicular injury 

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Contributor Information and Disclosures

Author

Moira Davenport, MD, Attending Physician, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery, Allegheny General Hospital
Moira Davenport, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Emergency Physicians and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Coauthor(s)

Joseph Kim, MD, Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine, Western Medical Center; Clinical Instructor, University of California at Irvine
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Medical Editor

Roy Alson, MD, PhD, FACEP, FAAEM, Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine; Medical Director, Forsyth County EMS; Deputy Medical Advisor, North Carolina Office of EMS; Associate Medical Director, North Carolina Baptist AirCare
Roy Alson, MD, PhD, FACEP, FAAEM is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Emergency Physicians, American Medical Association, National Association of EMS Physicians, North Carolina Medical Society, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, and Wilderness Medical Society
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Pharmacy Editor

Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD, Senior Pharmacy Editor, eMedicine
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Managing Editor

Tom Scaletta, MD, Past-President, American Academy of Emergency Medicine; Chairperson, Department of Emergency Medicine, Edward Hospital; Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Rush Medical College and Cook County Hospital
Tom Scaletta, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Emergency Medicine and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

CME Editor

John D Halamka, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Chief Information Officer, CareGroup Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School; Attending Physician, Division of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
John D Halamka, MD, MS is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Emergency Physicians, American Medical Informatics Association, Phi Beta Kappa, and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chief Editor

Rick Kulkarni, MD, Medical Director, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Section of Emergency Medicine, Yale-New Haven Hospital
Rick Kulkarni, MD is a member of the following medical societies: Alpha Omega Alpha, American Academy of Emergency Medicine, American College of Emergency Physicians, American Medical Association, American Medical Informatics Association, Phi Beta Kappa, and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
Disclosure: WebMD Salary Employment

 
 
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