A crunching tackle, flying headfirst off the bike onto your shoulder, or falling onto an elbow will often be enough to injure an acromio-clavicular joint (ACJ). When your patient walks in supporting their arm, or wearing a collar-and-cuff to offload their ACJ, how will you accurately assess and grade their injury? What will you include in your ACJ patient rehab to help them get back to full shoulder function and return to sport?
In Physio Edge podcast episode 87 with Dr Ian Horsley, Physio with English Rugby, English Institute of Sport and Olympic Team GB, we explore ACJ and clavicular injuries, including:
- ACJ anatomy, and which ligaments are commonly injured
- How to grade an ACJ injury
- When to request imaging
- Clavicular osteolysis
- How to identify SLAP lesions that occur with ACJ injuries
- How to assess patients with ACJ injury
- Objective assessment tests to help your diagnosis
- The role of the scapula in ACJ rehab
- Common exercises you can use in rehab
- Progressing ACJ rehab to prepare for return to sport
- How to include return to contact in your rehab eg for rugby players
- How much pain is ok during rehabilitation
- Return to play timeframes with common
- What do do when rehab is not progressing to plan
- Clavicular fractures - conservative or surgical management
- Ways to stimulate osteoblastic activity post fracture
Links associated with this episode:
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Resources associated with this episode:
Robertson et al. 2016. Return to sport following clavicle factors: a systemic review.
Other Episodes of Interest:
PE 077 - Anterior shoulder pain, long head of biceps tendon pathology and SLAP tears with Jo Gibson
PE 067 - Shoulder special tests and the rotator cuff with Dr Chris Littlewood
PE 043 - Sporting Shoulder with Jo Gibson
PE 040 - Shoulder Simplified With Adam Meakins
PE 021 - Shoulder Pain With Dr Jeremy Lewis
