Surgical management of arthritis of the carpo-metacarpal joint of the thumb.

In the years 1970-90, 118 procedures were performed on 100 patients with arthritis (osteoarthritis in all but 13) of the carpo-metacarpal joint of the thumb. The patients were aged 17 to 83 years (mean 54.5 years); 75 were females and 25 males; there were 73 right and 45 left hands; 18 patients had bilateral procedures. The average follow up period was 4.3 years, with a range of 1 to 20 years. Sixteen of the 118 procedures were arthrodeses; all these patients had isolated trapezio-metacarpal joint arthritis. Fifteen procedures were trapeziectomies and soft tissue arthroplasties; they were performed for pan-trapezial arthritis in the older age group, or as a secondary procedure for failed previous operations. Eighty-seven of the 118 procedures were silicone partial or total arthroplasties either for pan-trapezial arthritis or isolated trapezio-metacarpal joint arthritis (53 trapezium, 32 metatarso-phalangeal and 2 condyle implants). The overall results were: arthrodesis (68.7% good, 18.8% fair, 12.5% poor); soft tissue arthroplasty (80% good, 6.7% fair, 13.3% poor); silicone total arthroplasty (73.5% good, 15.1% fair, 11.3% poor); silicone hemiarthroplasty (68.8% good, 15.6% fair, 15.6% poor). No silicone synovitis was found in any of the 87 cases of silicone arthroplasties.