Findings from a study conducted in Canada and published online in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma suggest that hook plate fixation may not be superior to nonoperative treatment for acute, complete acromioclavicular (AC) joint dislocation. 

The authors conducted a randomized, controlled trial of 83 patients with acute, complete dislocation of the AC joint. Overall, 43 patients were treated nonoperatively and 40 were treated operatively. At 3-month follow-up, they found that patients in the non-operative cohort had better physical health scores than the operative cohort based on the Short Form-36 (SF-36) version 2 survey. There were no significant differences between the physical health scores of the two groups at any other time point (6 weeks, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years). Further, SF-36 mental health scores were similar between the non-operative and operative groups at all follow-up intervals. Learn more...