[Sprains and dislocations of large joints. The shoulder joint]

Injuries of the shoulder joint require exact diagnostic assessment. Soft tissue lesions which lead to instability of the joint must be recognized and treated adequately. Besides clinical and radiological examination, arthroscopy and sonography are becoming increasingly important. Acute sprain of the shoulder joint without instability is treated by a short immobilisation followed by active exercises, sprain (distorsion) with instability (dislocation!) may be treated by short immobilisation (two weeks) and early functional exercises or operatively by repair of a Bankart lesion, rupture of the rotatorcuff etc. A correlation between duration of immobilisation and subsequent recurrent dislocation has not be proven yet.