[Treatment of acute scapholunate ligament tears with simple wiring and arthroscopic assistance]

Scapholunate ligament tears give chronic instability leading in SLAC. The wrist arthroscopy allows to see the lesions, even in early stage, and to treat them, with a simple K-Wires fixation in acute cases. The patients were operated on in outpatient basis with tourniquet and local general anaesthesia. In acute cases, the scapholunate dissociation was reduced by external and internal manoeuvres. The fixation was done with two pins under arthroscopic and fluoroscopic controls. We report a series of 66 acute cases (less than 45 days after trauma). Forty-four patients were males and 22 females. The average age was 39 years old (range 19-46). Our average follow-up in acute cases was 36 months (range 14-61). According the "Mayo Wrist Score", we obtained 92 % of good or excellent results. The wrist arthroscopy is the best technique for early diagnosis, guarantee of best functional results.