The European Society for Surgery of the Shoulder and the Elbow (SECEC/ESSSE) has recognised our Shoulder and Elbow Surgery department, which is led by Prof. Dr. med. Markus Scheibel, as an SECEC/ESSSE Teaching Centre. Schulthess Klinik is delighted to have received the recognition required to become such a Teaching Centre, and looks forward to making an even greater contribution to training shoulder and elbow surgeons at European level.

From a health perspective, the repair of a torn rotator cuff (should tendon) can be beneficial to many patients. But does the surgical procedure also make economic sense? Our team of researchers and doctors joined forces with the Winterthur Institute of Health Economics and 16 major Swiss insurance providers to investigate this very question, using a cost-utility analysis of arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. 

Tennis elbow is one of the most common elbow conditions and is usually caused by overuse. Fortunately, treatment very rarely requires surgery. It is, however, a different matter if the affected tendon has torn and is causing chronic tennis elbow symptoms. In these cases, which tend to be rare, tendon reconstruction may provide long-awaited relief.

Shoulder tendon tears do not always have to be operated on. If an operation is required, innovative approaches are required so the repaired tendon does not re-rupture. A publication by our Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Department is concerned with precisely this subject.

At this year’s annual conference of the Swiss Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (SGOT), Dr Michael C. Glanzmann and Cécile Grobet, representing the entire authorship (Prof. Dr. Klaus Eichler, Flurina Meier, Dominik Rickenbacher, Dr Beatrice Brunner and Prof. Dr. Laurent Audigé), won the Maurice E. Müller Prize for the best clinical paper.

Prof. Dr. Laurent Audigé, leader of the Upper Extremities and Hand Surgery Research Group at the Schulthess Klinik, has submitted and received approval for an application to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), in collaboration with the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Department (co-applicant PD Dr. Andreas Müller), the Psychosomatics Department and the Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the University Hospital Basel, as well as the Swiss Patient Safety Foundation. The safety and efficacy of shoulder tendon tear surgery and the prognosis of treatment results are being investigated in almost 1,000 patients at several hospitals and practices across Switzerland and Germany. The second highest quality level was awarded by the SNSF. The project will now be funded for four years.