The instrument proved to be valid by demonstrating the same correlations predicted by standard clinical assessments and a generic patient-based instrument. Application and evaluation in clinical trial proved feasible and minimally time consuming. Therefore, the German translation of the Oxford shoulder score is a valid and reliable tool, applicable to outcome studies on shoulder patients.

The advantages of the subcutaneous subcapital Boesch technique are that it is time saving, it causes less bone and soft-tissue trauma, and it is performed under local anesthesia without a tourniquet. It is an effective operative option for symptomatic tailor's bunion; excellent and good clinical and radiographic results were found in 86.4% (57 patients, 66 feet) of the patients.

The German translation of the WOSI is a valid and reliable tool, applicable to outcome studies on patients with shoulder instability.

The evaluation of quality of life is an established criterion for evaluation of therapeutic measures. Starting from the English-speaking area a great number of different patient-based outcomes measures were developed to specifically question disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the results of treatment. Because of the lack of a German measurement tool for patients with rotator cuff disease the translation and the psychometric testing following international guidelines of the 34-item, multidimensional, English Rotator Cuff Quality-of-Life Measure (RC-QOL) was undertaken. Reliability (test-retest reliability, internal consistency), validity, practicability and acceptance of the German version of the RC-QOL were tested by 102 patients with an impingement syndrome after translation and cross-culture adaptation of the English original questionnaire. In addition, the SF-36, the Constant and UCLA scores were evaluated. Between the evaluations there was no significant difference; the Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.89 for the test-retest reliability. The internal consistency showed a high homogeneity with a Cronbach Alpha-coefficient of 0.98. A Pearson correlation coefficient between 0.67-0.76 registered a high correlation with the physical subscales of the SF-36, the Constant and the UCLA scores. The mean time required for completing the RC-QOL was 12 minutes; mean time required for evaluation was 10 minutes. The questionnaire was incompletely answered by 16 patients (15.6%). A total of 120 items (3.5%) were left unanswered. After successful translation and psychometric testing of the German version of the Rotator Cuff Quality-of-Life Measure (RC-QOL) a multidimensional measurement tool for evaluating the quality of life of German-speaking patients with pathology of the rotator cuff is available.