Revision of trapeziectomy failures in thumb base osteoarthritis: retrospective analysis of ten cases and review of the literature

Controversy persists around trapeziectomy as standard of care in thumb base osteoarthritis. The difficulty of management of failure requires the utmost caution in choice of the initial technique. We here report a retrospective series of 10 revision procedures following trapeziectomy, supported by a review of literature. The main cause of revision was collapse of the thumb column resulting in arthrogenic contact of the first metacarpal with the scaphoid. At a mean 73.3 months’ follow-up, 5 patients had to undergo additional surgery. Mean VAS pain score was 2.9; 5 patients were pain-free. Strength was more severely impaired than joint motion, resulting in disappointing functional results. The present outcomes are consistent with the literature, which mostly comprises heterogeneous series, making it impossible draw conclusions to guide practice. The most common option seems to be to perform a new ligament procedure, with or without tendon or pyrocarbon interposition, and was the one that provided the only good result in the present series. Other techniques (composite graft, non-autogenic interposition, scaphometacarpal prosthesis) seem promising, and deserve large-scale evaluation. Thus, the gold-standard status of trapeziectomy should be weighed against the observation of these multi-operated patients in situations of therapeutic impasse. Should indications for first-line trapeziectomy be restricted, especially in patients with a revision risk factor?