Osteoarthritis Of The Acromioclavicular(AC)Joint
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[edit] Acromioclavicular Joint (AC joint) Osteoarthritis
The AC joints (red arrow in image points to it) are important for the mobility of the shoulder girdle, which consisits of the two clavicles and the two shoulder blades as well as the connecting joints and muscles. The two pairs of joints that are part of the shoulder girdle are the sternoclavicular joint and the acromioclavicular joint on each side.
The AC joints are particluarly mobile and important. Unfortunately these are also the ones that tend to get osteoarthritis in the late 30's or mid 40's. At that time they are prone to develop little shoulder bone spurs
that can be as sharp as internal small knives causing osteoarthritis pain. If they point down in the direction of the supraspinatus tendon, this can become the source of an irritation causing chronic supraspinatus tendinitis and eventually a rotator cuff tear. In the presence of a congenital shoulder impingement syndrome this is particularly painful and devastating.
These cases need the attention of an orthopedic surgeon who can do a shoulder arthroscopy and clean out the spurs. Early detection by clinical examination and MRI scan are essential to prevent disaster (a supraspinatus tendon tear). In severe cases of AC joint arthritis the joint needs to be surgically removed by doing a shoulder decompression. This consists of cutting away the distal 1/3 of the clavicle (collar bone) and removal of a wedge of the acromion. This procedure often has to be done as an "open procedure" (meaning through a large incision) although most of the time shoulder surgeons do this procedure with arthroscopy (through "pinhole surgery").
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