Acromioclavicular dislocation is a common shoulder injury that accounts for about 12% of shoulder injuries and is common in young adults, resulting in about 20,000 injuries worldwide each year. The main reason for the injury is that the patient's shoulder is directly subjected to significant violence or shoulder fall injury, resulting in acromioclavicular ligament rupture and coracoclavicular ligament, deltoid muscle, and trapezius muscle insertion injury to different degrees. Indirect violence may also be accompanied by acromion fracture and rotator cuff injury. Dislocation of the acromioclavicular joint may cause instability and mobility disorder of the shoulder joint, thus affecting its function. There are three main types of acromioclavicular dislocation: Allman, Tossy, and Rockwood. Currently, the Rockwood classification is commonly used in the clinic, among which RockwoodⅠ and Ⅱ scholars tend to conservative treatment. For Rockwood type IV toⅥ, scholars prefer surgical treatment. Whether Rockwood type III injuries are treated conservatively or surgically remains a matter of debate. Therefore, the research on acromioclavicular dislocation has been increasing in recent years. Bibliometrics, first proposed in 1969, is a quantitative method that describes and analyzes the research trends and hot spots of a specific discipline or research field with the aid of modern computers and uses clear visual maps. It has been widely used in information science, education, medicine, and other fields, which can help researchers more conveniently interpret data and reveal its internal relationship, summarize the development status, and look forward to future trends. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a bibliometric analysis of acromioclavicular dislocation.

To analyze the literature related to acromioclavicular dislocation in the past 20 years through bibliometric research and to explore the new research trends and hot spots in this field.

We searched the literature on acromioclavicular dislocation in the Web of Science database from 2000 to 2022. Office2021, VOS Viewer, and CiteSpace were used to analyze the selected literature's publication year, journal, country, institution, author, keywords, and cooperative relationship.

In this study, 536 articles were selected, and the amount of literature steadily increased. The United States published the most papers on acromioclavicular dislocation, with 158 papers accounting for 29.48% of the total papers. The American Journal of Sports Medicine published the most, with 66 articles accounting for 12.31% of the total articles. Mazzocca AD, of the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Connecticut Health Center in the United States, published 24 and was the most active author. The University of Connecticut published 27 articles, which is the most popular research institution. "acj dislocation" "reconstruction" "injuries" "shoulder" and "surgical treatment" were the most frequently used keywords.

The literature on acromioclavicular dislocation continues to grow yearly, and the United States and its scholars have made outstanding contributions to this critical field. Rockwood subtyping therapy, arthroscopic assisted technology, finite element analysis, and cyclization are the current and future research hotspots. This study provides statistical data on the current literature in the field of acromioclavicular dislocation, provides future research directions for all researchers and physicians, and promotes closer communication and collaboration.