new variant of the treatment of acromion-clavicular dislocation with tightrope ® system in a mini - open approach: a preliminary clinical study

background many different surgical techniques have been described to stabilize the acromion-clavicular (ac) dislocations. so far many of these procedures are performed only in arthroscopy. objectives in this study, we describe a new technique that utilizes the tightrope with a mini-invasive open approach for the acute stabilization of the acromion-clavicular joint (acj) dislocation. patients and methods we set an prospective study aimed to verify the efficacy of this new surgical technique. we treated 28 patients with acute acj dislocation with acj tightrope ® system with dual mini access. we retrospectively reviewed the data of 34 patients treated with arthroscopic technique. they were considered as the control group. results at 6 month’s follow-up, all the 28 patients showed a stable joint during clinical examination and obtained an average constant score of 98.62/100, with a complete recovery of rom and strength in abduction. the mean operation time was of 33.7 minutes. the mean recovery duration was 102.8 days. no significant difference was found between the experimental and control groups (p > 0.05). conclusions results of this trial suggest the effectiveness of this new mini-invasive surgical technique in producing clinical and functional recovery in patients with acj dislocations.