Case Report: Medial Clavicle Physeal Injury Mimicking a Posterior Clavicular Dislocation in a Young Adult

Sternoclavicular injuries are rare and account for 1 % of all dislocations. Medial clavicular physeal separation is another rare entity and may sometimes mimic a sternoclavicular dislocation. Diagnosis is usually missed in young adults due to lack of clinical suspicion.

A 22-year-old male patient sustained a right shoulder girdle injury due to a motorcycle accident. He was clinically diagnosed as a posterior sternoclavicular dislocation. On further imaging a medial clavicular physeal injury was suspected. An attempt of closed reduction was attempted but not successful so it was converted to an open reduction. Physeal injury was confirmed and reduction was fixed with transosseous sutures using low cost polyglactin suture material. Patient had a good clinical recovery.

Medial clavicle physeal injury may mimic sternoclavicular dislocations and should be clinically suspected in young adult patients.