Diagnosis and conservative treatment of elbow joint arthrosis

About the department

The Department of Adult and Pediatric Orthopedics, Trauma Surgery, Spinal Surgery at the University Hospital Oldenburg provides a wide range of top-class medical services in its areas of expertise. The department successfully performs knee, hip, shoulder, and elbow replacement surgery, arthroscopic procedures on the large joints, osteosarcoma resection surgery, and spinal surgery. The department has an emergency service that specializes in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries of any severity, including sports injuries. The department offers a variety of conservative treatment methods for orthopedic diseases and spinal pathologies. The department's medical team has three operating rooms, one of which is designed for outpatient surgical procedures. The department performs more than 2,500 scheduled and emergency surgeries each year; more than 25% of all surgeries are performed on an outpatient basis, allowing patients to return home the same day. When diagnosing and treating patients, the department's physicians follow the recommendations of the German Society for Orthopaedics and Traumatology (DGOU). The Head Physician of the department is PD Dr. med. Ingke Jürgensen.

The department admits many patients with arthrosis, a chronic disease that causes gradual destruction of intra-articular cartilage. In the early stages, the department's specialists use only conservative therapy, such as pharmacotherapy, intra-articular injections, and physiotherapy procedures. As the pathology progresses, these methods become ineffective, so doctors may recommend joint replacement surgery. The essence of the surgery is to replace the affected joint with a prosthesis to eliminate pain and restore mobility. The department's surgeons have special expertise in hip, knee, shoulder, and elbow replacement surgery. They perform both primary and revision arthroplasty (replacement of a previously implanted prosthesis). Surgical procedures are performed using sparing minimally invasive techniques and innovative computer navigation systems that allow the prosthesis to be implanted in the desired position with maximum accuracy. With extensive clinical experience in joint replacement surgery, the surgeons in the department have the necessary expertise and skills to select the optimal type of endoprosthesis for the patient, which also plays an important role in the success of the treatment.

Arthroscopic procedures on the knee, shoulder, elbow, and ankle are an important part of the department's daily clinical practice. In most cases, arthroscopic procedures are performed for sports injuries such as cruciate ligament ruptures, traumatic cartilage injuries, meniscus tears, and shoulder dislocations. It should be noted that the department's specialists have exceptional professional skills in performing arthroscopic procedures for the treatment of cruciate ligament ruptures in children and adolescents. The essence of arthroscopic intervention is as follows: the surgeon makes two small 5-6 mm long incisions in the area of ​​the affected joint, through which an arthroscope (a thin long instrument with a built-in miniature video camera and a light source) is inserted into the joint cavity, after which the doctor performs the necessary diagnostic and/or therapeutic manipulations. The video camera continuously transmits images of the surgical field in real time in multiple zooms, allowing the specialist to see the smallest intra-articular structures and effectively eliminate pathological changes. The main advantages of arthroscopy are low trauma rate, extremely fast recovery of mobility without aids (the patient can move independently after 1-3 days), and low surgical risks.

The department's team of trauma surgeons specializes in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and multiple injuries. The physicians work closely with experts in other departments, particularly the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, the Department of General and Abdominal Surgery, the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, the Department of Neurosurgery, and the Department of Ophthalmology. Whenever possible, the specialists use only conservative treatment, for example, bone reduction with a cast. In complex cases, traumatologists perform surgical procedures, the most common of which is osteosynthesis, an operation to restore the integrity of fractured bones by fusing bone fragments together with screws, plates, rods, or other devices.

The medical facility's therapeutic offer is complemented by conservative and surgical treatment of a wide range of spinal diseases. The department's specialists successfully operate on patients with cervical, thoracic, and lumbar disc herniations, spinal canal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, vertebral fractures, and other pathologies. Surgical treatment involves the use of minimally traumatic, minimally invasive, and microsurgical techniques, which, in addition to excellent results, ensure a high degree of safety, since damage to the anatomical structures of the spine can potentially lead to irreversible neurological deficit.

The department's clinical focuses include the following:

• Primary and revision hip, knee, shoulder, and elbow arthroplasty
• Arthroscopic procedures on the knee, shoulder, elbow, and ankle joints
• Conservative and surgical treatment of osteosarcomas
• Conservative and surgical treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, sports injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and multiple injuries of any severity
• Conservative and surgical treatment of spinal diseases
• Other medical services