Papers of the Week

Surgical treatment of thumb basal joint arthritis generally yields good and excellent results. In case of failure, the surgeon will propose an appropriate solution to the patient, one that can be performed easily. Each technique has its own complications: shortening with trapeziometacarpal pain following trapeziectomy, loosening and instability following total arthroplasty, instability for some implants. There are also intolerances such as allergies to nickel, foreign body reactions to silicone and inflammatory reactions to some synthetic ligament implants. It is important to bear these complications in mind when determining the best possible surgical technique initially. The different surgical solutions are exposed here. Prosthetic replacement is preferred in case of loosening when it is technically possible in order to preserve the thumb's length. A conversion to trapeziectomy with or without interposition (implant or ligament reconstruction) will be carried out in the other cases. In case of trapeziectomy failure, solutions are more difficult to find. In the current state of things, it seems that implant or biological tissue interposition is the best solution.