Surgical treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis of the shoulder should be one part of a concept of conservative and surgical treatment. In addition to disease-modifying agents, local minimally invasive surgery can avoid structural damage to the shoulder and furthermore achieve a restitution of shoulder function. According to Larsen Stage 0-III, an arthroscopic synovectomy and bursectomy can achieve a good prognosis and help to avoid further structural damage to the rheumatoid shoulder. Minimally invasive procedures in the surgery of the rheumatoid shoulder lead to less immobilisation and faster rehabilitation, to the benefit of the joints in the operated limb, much like therapy of the knee. It is also possible to treat associated pathologies with minimally invasive surgery, such as bursitis, small rotator cuff defects, and synovitis of the acromioclavicular joint, as well as synovectomy of the glenohumeral joint Good results can be achieved in these cases using minimally invasive surgery. However, minimally invasive reconstructive procedures are limited in the rheumatoid shoulder.

Sonography of the knee has gained in significance in the diagnosis of the meniscus; experimental and clinical studies have demonstrated that the normal and pathological anatomy of the meniscus can be visualized on a sonogram. The aim of this comparative investigation is to evaluate sonographic lesion diagnosis in comparison with arthroscopic findings, using a standardized examination method. Two hundred and six knee joints were first scanned sonographically using a 7.5 MHz sector transducer. The examining doctor had neither anamnestic nor clinical information in advance. On the following day, the joints were examined arthroscopically, without the findings of the day before being available to the examiner. When the findings were compared, the sensitivity of sonographic diagnosis of lesions was found to be 82.2% and its specificity 87.6%. The patients were of varying ages and had varying anamneses. The results show that sonography of the meniscus is a valuable diagnostic help when the knee-joint symptoms are not clear, given that the correct technical equipment and sufficient experience with this form of examination are at hand. The advantage of sonography is that, in contrast to arthroscopy, it is noninvasive and easily available.