Mini open triple tunnel- double flip button techniques in treatment of acute acromioclavicular joint injuries: Case report

Abstract

Acute acromioclavicular (AC) joint injuries are common and often occur in a contact sport activity. Most acute AC joint injuries surgery techniques focus on coracoclavicular (CC) ligament complex fixation; by single or double clavicle tunnel, but persisting vertical instability. In this paper, we introduce mini open triple tunnel- double flip button (TTDB) technique for acute AC joint dislocation by adding tunnel on clavicle to expand coverage of footprint of conoid and trapezoid ligament in order to improve vertical stability of the AC joint. This method is based on CC ligament augmentation with a double flip button/polydioxanone (PDS), combined with V-loop pulley suture for anatomical fixation. This is a prospective case report. Two professional, male basketball players in this study with a mean age of 25 years underwent surgery in 2019. Clinical subjective outcome, VAS score, Nottingham Clavicle Score, and radiological CC distance were measured before and after the operation. There were noticeable improvement in the patients' recovery after two years since the operation. We introduce TTDB technique as one of the open techniques for acute AC joint injuries in limited-resource hospital setting.