Waldkliniken Eisenberg
German Centre for Orthopaedics
Sports Department
Patients with sports injuries and shoulder diseases receive competent and comprehensive diagnostics and therapy in our department. Our main focus is directed at the treatment of diseases related to the shoulder, knee and upper ankle.
After an intervention, active people want to return to their everyday lives as quickly as possible and get back to playing sports again at their usual level. For this reason, we are committed to minimally-invasive surgical techniques and arthroscopic methods (keyhole surgery). For recreational and professional sportspeople, we additionally offer performance diagnostics.
Our team of doctors
Diseases of the shoulder joint
Diseases of the shoulder joint
At the Waldkliniken Eisenberg we have a broad diagnostic and therapeutic spectrum for the treatment of diseases of the shoulder joint at our disposal.
These include degenerative diseases of the shoulder joint, such as rotator cuff tears, shoulder impingement syndrome or calcified shoulder, as well as injury-related diseases: for example, humeral head fractures, shoulder luxations (dislocated shoulder) or tendon tears
Here, our patients benefit from the multifaceted experience of our orthopaedic specialists – we carry out around 600 shoulder operations per year.
In addition, we work closely with our colleagues from Anaesthesia: As a result of optimally adjusted regional anaesthesia and the best possible analgesic treatment after surgery, the necessary physiotherapeutic measures can be started at an early stage – for the patients, this means that the hospital stay and recovery period are shortened.
Shoulder arthroplasty
Shoulder arthroplasty
In the meantime, artificial replacement of the shoulder joint belongs to the established procedures in orthopaedic surgery: As a university orthopaedics department, we have a particularly broad range of experience in the field of shoulder arthroplasty.
The patients are often suffering from the advanced stages of osteoarthritis (wear phenomena) of the shoulder joint. The causes of this are diverse, e.g. a rheumatic disease, old injuries of the rotator cuff, instabilities or humerus fractures. If joint-sparing interventions are not likely to be successful, an artificial shoulder joint can restore mobility and freedom from pain.
Before patients decide whether to undergo this operation, our orthopaedic specialists inform them competently about the different types of prosthesis: We have a comprehensive spectrum at our disposal – which enables us to find the artificial shoulder joint that optimally fits the anatomy of the individual patient.
Our long-term experience with artificial shoulder joints is very good: Depending on the causative disease, many of our patients are pain-free and are able to move their arm again.
Shoulder luxation
Shoulder luxation
Almost half of all dislocations (luxations) involve the shoulder joint. There are numerous different classifications for the various forms of shoulder luxation – in principle, dislocations can be classified according to their cause into traumatic and habitual luxations. The patient suffers from pain and a reduced mobility of the shoulder.
Traumatic luxations are caused by a strong external application of force, for example through accidents or overexertion in sports. In such cases, the dislocated joint must be returned as quickly as possible to the normal position (repositioned) – the orthopaedic surgeon has several techniques available to achieve this.
In the case of a habitual luxation, the shoulder joint dislocates repeatedly upon certain movements even without the application of force: The cause is often a prior traumatic luxation that caused sustained damage to the shoulder joint.
In this case, too, repositioning should be performed as quickly as possible – long-term improvement can be achieved through physiotherapeutic measures or a stabilisation operation.
Cruciate ligament rupture
Cruciate ligament rupture
The cruciate ligament rupture belongs to the most common sports injuries: Abrupt twisting movements, falls or overextension of the knee joint cause a rupture of one or both of the cruciate ligaments, which are responsible for stabilising the knee joint.
Immediate consequences are often severe pain, haemorrhages and swellings of the knee joint – mobility is commonly impaired. Accompanying injuries usually also occur.
Cruciate ligament ruptures should be treated surgically. Particularly for young, active people, an operation is usually the best option: Without a stabilising cruciate ligament, early wear of the joint cartilage can occur (osteoarthritis).
The standard procedure for treating a cruciate ligament rupture is stabilisation by means of cruciate ligament plasty. For this purpose, a piece of the patient’s own tendon is implanted into the knee – the operation takes around one hour. The intervention is performed via small skin incisions (minimally invasively), which makes it easier on the patient.
Afterwards, the patient is treated on the ward for three to five days – partial weight-bearing on the knee is necessary for four weeks. Almost as important as the operation itself is consistent follow-up treatment. Here, the patient benefits from the experience and competence of our physiotherapy team.
Patients should generally avoid contact sports for twelve months. They can usually take part in all sports again a year after the operation. The treatment of a posterior cruciate ligament rupture is considerably more complicated and protracted than that of an anterior cruciate ligament rupture.
Autologous cartilage transplantation
Autologous cartilage transplantation
Above all sports injuries and a few particular diseases (osteochondrosis dissecans) lead to the loss of cartilage in the knee or ankle joint. If left untreated, the cartilage damage can in many cases lead to the occurrence of premature joint wear (osteoarthritis).
Because joint cartilage cannot regenerate on its own in adults, conservative therapies (physiotherapy, pharmacotherapy) provide short-term relief, but they do not help much in the long term. As a general rule, cartilage damage has to be operated on.
Today, orthopaedic surgeons increasingly use biological procedures such as autologous chondrocyte transplantation: This is especially suitable for patients aged between 18 and 50 years and often saves them from having to undergo an operation to replace the knee joint.
In the case of cartilage cell transplantation, orthopaedic surgeons perform arthroscopy on the patient’s knee to remove cartilage. This is then cultivated in a biotechnology laboratory – after around three weeks, the patient receives a specially prepared graft. In a second operation, the doctors insert this graft precisely into the damaged area of cartilage – the time required to carry out this operation is around 45 minutes.
The experience we have gained with this method is entirely positive: After the operation, the patients go on to lead an active and pain-free life with a healthy knee.
In the case of small cartilage defects, it may be possible to perform an intervention to transplant a cartilage-bone cylinder into the defect.
We predominantly perform our cartilage cell transplantations on the knee and ankle joint.