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Upper and plantar heel pains are differentiated from one another. Plantar heel pain is usually caused by plantar fasciitis. A heel spur is a side effect and is not related to the cause of the symptoms. Upper heel pain is mostly caused by tendonitis of the Achilles tendon or Haglund exostosis. Only through an exact diagnosis is an adequate and usually conservative therapy possible. If the conservative therapy should fail, it is nevertheless important to clarify the indication for surgery to prevent the problems from becoming chronic.

The family physician can provide his patient with useful information to help him decide in favor of or against a total hip replacement procedure. This also applies to the choice of the most suitable endoprosthetic system, such pre-operative measures as discontinuation or change of medication, and the assessment of possible perioperative or postoperative complications.

Injuries seen in football players mainly affect the knee and ankle joints and muscles. The causes include chronic overstrain and traumatization usually resulting from physical contact between opponent players. Torsional trauma of the joints results in excessive stressing of the capsular ligaments, potentially leading to rupture of the structures involved. Therapeutic options range from conservative measures to reconstructive or prosthetic surgery. While muscular injuries have a good prognosis with regard to the chances of continuing sports activities, injuries to ligaments often enforce a lengthy pause from sports. Extensive injuries to cartilages can terminate a player's sporting career. However, new procedures that take account of physiological biomechanics, together with the further development of surgical technologies now often allow players to regain their pre-injury level of fitness. Specific rehabilitation is a major therapeutic means of preventing further injury.

On account of the considerable variability of the clinical situation, treatment of soft tissue sarcoma requires an individually oriented multimodal approach. In the case of patients with superficial low-grade tumors measuring less than 5 cm in diameter, resection alone is usually adequate. In the event of medium-grade lesions, resection with negative margins, resection in combination with radiotherapy achieves excellent local control rates associated with an overall survival rate of almost 80%. In patients with high-grade sarcomas measuring more than 5 cm in diameter, local control can be achieved with resection and radiotherapy, although every second such patient develops metastases. For patients with local recurrence, further resection should be considered/performed. Radiotherapy is all the more effective, the smaller the postoperative tumor cell burden.

Owing to the relatively high incidence of this condition (2 in 1,000 neonates) and the poor functional outcome of inadequate treatment, clubfoot represents a major clinical problem. Although its etiology is not fully known, modern three-dimensional analyses have led to a better understanding of the pathomorphology and provide a new basis for a differentiated therapeutic strategy. Of central importance is early diagnosis and immediate postpartum initiation of primarily conservative treatment taking the form of intensive redressment measures. Depending on the residual deformity, an appropriate surgical procedure aimed at achieving complete correction should be done between the age of 4 to 6 months. To ensure a lasting positive outcome, rigorous follow-up physiotherapeutic treatment and close surveillance are essential.