OBJECTIVES: Treating arthrosis in the base of the thumb has been a highly controverted subject. Many surgeries have been described, such as the isolated trapezium resection; resection with interposition with and without ligament plasty, arthrodesis, and arthroplasties. The purpose of this paper is to compare the two techniques which are the most used in this treatment. METHODS: A prospective study has been made to compare the surgical results between the trapezium resection with tendon interposition (tendon arthroplasty) - 22 cases - and tendon arthroplasty associated to ligament plasty - 24 cases. Objective evaluation was done by measuring opponency, movements of the metacarpophalangeal joint, pinching and pressure strength, radiographic measurement of the distance between the first metacarpian and the scaphoid, and measurement of the angle between the first and the second metacarpian. Subjective evaluation was done with a DASH questionnaire, an analogical-digital scale to evaluate pain and patient satisfaction. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After application of the criteria described and using Student t test for statistical analysis, the authors concluded that the ligament reconstruction has no advantage over the simple tendon interposition in carpometacarpal arthrosis of the thumb.
Osteoarthritis; Trapezium bone; Thumb; Musculoskeletal diseases; Arthroplasty; Comparative studies
