Abstract
Injury to the sternoclavicular joint (SCG) is very rare, accounting for 3% of shoulder
injuries and < 1% of instabilities. Consequently, both the treatment of acute instabilities
and their subsequent states (chronic instabilities/SCG arthrosis) are controversial.
While treatment has so far been mostly conservative, in recent years there has been
a trend towards surgical therapy.
Considerable violence, such as that found in traffic accidents or contact sports,
can tear the extremely stable ligaments between the medial clavicle and sternum. While
anterior dislocation is easier to reduce in most cases, instability remains in up
to 50% of cases. In most cases, posterior instability requires rapid reduction, particularly
due to the anatomical proximity to important cardio-pulmonary structures. If this
succeeds, the rate of persistent instabilities is low. For chronic instability, reconstruction/augmentation
of the ligament apparatus with tendon grafts in the “Figure of 8 configuration” has
proven to be the standard technique in recent years.
Keywords
sternoclavicular joint - instability - osteoarthritis
