[The De La Caffinière trapezo-metacarpal prosthesis in rhizarthrosis of the thumb. Apropos of 20 cases surgically treated between 1978 and 1990].

The authors have studied twenty total prosthesis of de la Caffinière. These prostheses have been inserted between 1980 and 1990 at the "centre de Traumatologie et d'Orthopédie de Strasbourg", following a trapezo-metacarpal arthritis. According to a post-operative average of five years, the results are good in 70% cases. A study of the mobility and of the strength of the hand, as well as one of the radiography, allows to make bring out two complications: the first, rarely studied for this prosthesis, is a rigidity of the trapezo-metacarpal articulation due to post-operative ossifications. Consequently the post-operative ossifications. Consequently the post-operative benefit decreases proportionally to the importance of the rigidity; the second, already pointed out in few articles, is the presence of radio lucent lines which is asymptomatic in 20% of cases. The causes founded are different from the one already published. Anyway, in spite of those risks, it is globally useful in the majority of cases. Therefore the authors remain loyal to this intervention in the presence of an isolated trapezio metacarpal arthritis to the patients with are not subjected to handicrafts.