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Early failures with a spheric interposition arthroplasty of the thumb basal joint
George S Athwal1, Jordan Chenkin, Graham J King
1Department of Surgery, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Queen's University, Kingston General Hospital, Kingston; London, Ontario, Canada.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study is to report the early results with the Orthosphere (Wright Medical Technology Inc, Arlington, TN) spheric interpositional arthroplasty.
Methods:
Six women and 1 man had Orthosphere arthroplasty between 2000 and 2001. The mean age at the time of surgery was 52 years (range, 24-73 years) and the mean duration of clinical and radiographic follow-up evaluation was 33 months (range, 29-44 months).
Results:
Six of 7 Orthosphere implants subsided into the trapezium resulting in pain, weakness, and stiffness. There was 1 implant dislocation. Five patients have had revision surgery to trapezial excision ligament reconstruction and tendon interposition arthroplasty. Of the remaining 2 patients 1 is contemplating presently revision surgery and the other is experiencing mild residual pain. No patients were satisfied completely with their Orthosphere results.
Conclusions:
In our experience the early outcome of the Orthosphere interpositional arthroplasty has been unacceptable. We no longer use the device at our institutions.