[Imaging methods in traumatology of the shoulder- and elbow joint]

Radiological diagnostics (diagnostic imaging) of the traumatised shoulder and elbow joint has expanded considerably and has become increasingly meaningful in recent years. The introduction of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging has enabled a significantly better assessment of soft parts and of the inner spatial structure of the joints. Hence, focus of diagnosis has now shifted from the assessment of the bones (which was previously the main aspect of diagnosis) to a different analysis of the joint as a functional unit of bone and soft part structures, an analysis that can also detect subtle changes such as additive micro-traumas. The article reviews the conventional imaging methods and the present state of the art in tomographic imaging technique, and illustrates this by means of several representative examples of diagnostic imaging.