Willis Knighton Health in Bossier City is the first facility in the region to offer a new treatment for thumb arthritis. It’s called the TOUCH CMC 1 Prosthesis, and it’s being performed by hand and wrist surgery specialist Dr. Diego Miranda. He says whereas traditional treatments require complete removal of the trapezium bone, this new procedure keeps it intact.
“With this procedure, we have a minimum resection of the bone; we just replace the joint surfaces,” Miranda noted.
The joint surfaces are replaced with a dual-mobility ball-and-socket implant. Dr. Miranda says like the traditional procedure, this is an outpatient procedure, and the recovery time is three weeks.
“We usually place the patient in a protective splint immobilization for one week and a brace for another two weeks, and then the patient starts moving freely from then on,” Miranda explained.
Miranda says he started offering this new procedure earlier this summer, and the demand for it among patients suffering from thumb arthritis is growing.
“We just started back in June. We’re doing this procedure every month; we’re getting more and more patients scheduled for this procedure,” Miranda said.
Thumb arthritis happens when cartilage wears away from the ends of the bones that form the joint at the base of the thumb. It is the second most common type of hand arthritis, affecting between 25 and 33 percent of adults over the age of 50, mostly women.
The condition causes pain, stiffness, and swelling, weakening the thumb and making simple daily tasks like opening jars, turning keys, gripping objects and pinching painful and frustrating.
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