Dr. med. Martin Volz & Kollegen

The clinic's satisfied patients include many professional athletes: the ice hockey players of the Ravensburg Towerstars as well as the footballers of the Razorbacks or cyclist Emanuel Buchmann, the best German at the 2018 Tour de France. Movement and activity are the declared passion of the doctors and the team – not just on a professional level: Volz is the German medical champion in mountain biking, his colleagues are runners or road cyclists. Once a year the entire clinic team goes skiing together. Last summer the company outing was: get on the stand-up paddleboard and off across Lake Constance!

The patients benefit from the passion of the doctors, even if they are not sports enthusiasts. "We treat every orthopedic issue with the same dedication, regardless of whether it's a top athlete, craftsman, or pensioner," explains Volz. The top credo here: joint preservation before joint replacement. Because no joint is as good as your own. "We initially use all effective conservative approaches and exhaust the entire spectrum of reconstructive procedures before we decide on a prosthesis." Knee expert Volz, for example, uses all common cartilage replacement techniques on the knee. His colleague Dr. Thomas Mattes is one of the very few specialists in this country who performs the so-called triple osteotomy for congenital hip dysplasia. In this malformation, the acetabulum is too small, the femoral head too poorly covered. The resulting misalignment leads to more cartilage abrasion and early joint wear. In the procedure, Mattes moves the too-small acetabulum under X-ray control so that the surface better stands over the femoral head. "The procedure improves the joint's biomechanics and thus slows down joint wear," explains Mattes. Recognized in time, the triple osteotomy can help delay an artificial hip joint by many years.

The doctors of the sports clinic also have high expertise in artificial joint replacement and the exchange of loosened artificial joints. Here, the team relies on prosthesis manufacturers with decades of experience. The materials used are carefully selected by the surgeons according to the specific requirements and needs of the patients. The declared goal here: to release patients into a life without pain and restrictions for many decades.

About ten percent of the 39,800 patients the team sees annually at the Ravensburg clinic or in the practice branches in Bad Waldsee and Friedrichshafen are ultimately operated on. During the procedures, the doctors primarily use minimally invasive techniques. Here, the size of the skin incision is not the decisive factor, says Mattes, but the maximally gentle treatment of soft tissues and muscles: "We want to cut through as few muscles as possible. This reduces the trauma, patients lose less blood, and recover faster."

In addition, the doctors pay attention to compatible anesthesia and pain medications and early mobilization. This means that the entire operative approach is geared towards "rapid recovery" or "quick recovery," which guarantees timely rehabilitation – a big plus for working people and retirees.