Trapezial resection arthroplasty for osteoarthritis: use of abductor pollicis longus tendoplasty with interpositional material.

In this series, 45 patients had 54 trapezial resection arthroplasties for carpometacarpal osteoarthritis, with nine of the patients having bilateral arthroplasties. A major slip of the abductor pollicis longus tendon was used as a sling, with the underlying flexor carpi radialis tendon as stabilizer. Palmaris longus tendon, when present (42 cases), and absorbable gelatin sponge, when palmaris was absent (12 cases), served as interpositional material. Review was done an average of 4.3 years (range, 1 to 11 years) after the procedure. The average space maintenance of resection site was 4.4 mm. This decreased to an average of 3.5 mm on the key pinch stress maneuver. Subjectively, the patients judged their results to be good to excellent in 49 instances (91%) and fair in 5 (9%).