What Can Be Done for Arthritis in Thumb Joint?
Basal pollex arthritis
What is information technology?
The universal joint at the base of the thumb, betwixt the metacarpal and trapezium bones, oftentimes becomes arthritic as people go older. Information technology is osteoarthritis, which is loss of the smooth cartilage surface covering the ends of the bones in the joints. The cartilage becomes thin and rough, and the bone ends tin can rub together. Osteoarthritis can develop at any age, but usually appears afterwards the age of 45. Information technology may run in families, and it sometimes follows a fracture involving the joint many years before.
Arthritis of the basal joint of the thumb is common in women and rather less common in men. X-rays evidence it is nowadays in about 25% of women over the age of 55, simply many people with arthritis of this joint have no significant hurting.
What are the symptoms?
ane. Pain at the base of the thumb, aggravated by pollex employ.
two. Tenderness if you press on the base of operations of the thumb.
3. Difficulty with tasks such as opening jars, turning a cardinal in the lock etc.
4. Stiffness of the thumb and some loss of power to open the thumb away from the hand.
5. In advanced cases, there is a bump at the base of the thumb and the middle thumb joint may hyperextend, giving a zigzag appearance.
What is the treatment?
The options for handling include:
1. Avoiding activities that cause pain, if possible.
2. Analgesic and/or anti-inflammatory medication. A pharmacist or your family unit dr. can suggest.
3. Using a splint to back up the thumb and wrist. Rigid splints (metal or plastic) are effective just make pollex use difficult. A flexible neoprene rubber support is more practicable.
4. Steroid injection improves pain in many cases, though the result may wear off over fourth dimension. The risks of injection are small, merely it very occasionally causes some thinning or colour modify in the pare at the site of injection. Improvement may occur within a few days of injection, just ofttimes takes several weeks to be effective. The injection can be repeated if needed.
v. Surgery is a last resort, every bit the symptoms ofttimes stabilise over the long term and tin can be controlled by the non-surgical treatments above. There are diverse operations that can be performed to treat this condition. These are listed below:
a. Osteotomy, which ways cut and realigning the metacarpal os adjacent to the arthritic joint.
b. Removal of the trapezium which is removal of the bone at the lesser of the thumb, which forms one surface of the arthritic articulation, sometimes combined with reconstruction of the ligaments.
c. Fusion of the joint, and then that it no longer moves. .
d. Joint replacement, every bit in a hip replacement.
e. Denervation, which means cutting small nerve branches that transmit pain from the arthritic joint.
Removal of the trapezium is the most commonly performed operation.
Your Hand Surgeon will advise y'all on the best options for your thumb
All artwork:©Donald Sammut 2017
Source: https://www.bssh.ac.uk/patients/conditions/24/basal_thumb_arthritis
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