[Current operative strategies for rotator cuff tears in German hospitals]

The surgical treatment of rotator cuff lesions is still a controversial subject. We therefore decided to perform a study designed to yield an overview of the treatment modalities currently applied in Germany. A nationwide questionnaire survey was sent to 470 orthopaedic and trauma departments to ask about their surgical treatment of rotator cuff lesions: frequency of operative treatment, methods used in diagnosis and types of operative treatment; particular attention was paid to the application of minimally invasive techniques and to postoperative rehabilitation. The response rate was 55%. In all, 30,462 arthroscopic treatments were recorded for the year 2004, 9,094 of which were open or mini-open techniques and 2,528 were endoscopic reconstructions of the rotator cuff. Overall, we found that arthroscopic rotator cuff repair was performed in only 111 of the 257 departments from which responses were received and that the majority of surgeons preferred to use sutured and nonresorbable anchors. The postoperative treatment varies widely, from the full range of motion allowed within the first postoperative week to substantially more restrictive regimens. We see that the arthroscopic repair is still not the standard treatment for rotator cuff lesions in Germany. Further research is clearly still needed especially in the area of postoperative treatment.