Dr Rob Dachs is a specialist orthopaedic surgeon with fellowship training in Shoulder and Elbow Surgery.

His special interests are the management of rotator cuff tears, shoulder and elbow dislocations, and the treatment of upper limb sports injuries. He uses ultrasound in his rooms to assist in the diagnosis of soft tissue injuries.

Rob completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Cape Town, and after obtaining his FCS (Orth) SA, and MMed (Orth) SA in 2012, he worked as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in upper limb surgery at Groote Schuur Hospital before completing an 18-month fellowship in shoulder and elbow surgery under the mentorship of Professor Basil Vrettos and Professor Steve Roche.

During his fellowship Rob gained extensive experience in all aspects of shoulder and elbow surgery, including arthroscopic (keyhole) and joint replacement surgery.

In 2014 he was awarded an American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) International Scholarship to complete further training in shoulder and elbow surgery in the United States. During this Scholarship he spent time with Dr Shawn O’Driscoll at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, and Dr Peter Millett at the Steadman Clinic in Vail Colorado. In 2015 he was awarded the South African Orthopaedic Association/Smith & Nephew Award, and the South African Society for Surgery of the Hand – Isidore Kaplan Award. His research papers have been published in leading international journals, and presented at both local and international meetings.

Rob continues to regularly visit international surgeons to keep up to date with the latest shoulder and elbow surgical techniques, and in 2015 he was invited to attend the prestigious Mayo Clinic Advanced Elbow Surgical Skills Course in the USA, which he attends annually.

He is a peer reviewer of shoulder and elbow research papers for the South African Orthopaedic Journal and continues to work in both clinical and research fields as a consultant at the University of Cape Town Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Rob is based in Somerset West, Cape Town, at the Busamed Paardevlei Private Hospital, twice ranked a national top 20 hospital by Discovery Health members.