Revisions after Trapeziometacarpal Joint Resection Arthroplasty: A Systematic Literature Review

The aim of this systematic literature review was to describe current indications and interventions for revisions after trapeziometacarpal joint (TMJ) resection arthroplasty.

The literature search was conducted by an experienced librarian in the MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. The authors included all articles that investigated any TMJ arthroplasty procedure in which the trapezium was completely resected and if any subsequent revision procedure including joint-related and soft-tissue operations was mentioned. Two independent reviewers selected the articles and were involved in data extraction.

Sixty-two articles reporting on 5284 operated thumbs and 434 revision operations were included. Twenty-four indications for revision and 31 revision techniques were extracted. Most revisions were performed because of subsidence/impingement of the first metacarpal bone ( n = 194 thumbs) followed by unspecified pain ( n = 53), metacarpophalangeal joint problems ( n = 28), and scaphotrapezoidal osteoarthritis ( n = 17). Eleven treatment strategies were found for subsidence/impingement of the first metacarpal, the most frequent being revision of the existing interposition using autologous tendon ( n = 46) and soft-tissue interposition with distraction pinning ( n = 28).

There are a wide variety of indications and even more surgical techniques described in the literature to treat persisting or recurrent pain after TMJ resection arthroplasty. Currently, there is no uniform treatment guideline available on how to diagnose and treat such cases. Therefore, the results of this literature review will form the basis for a Delphi study aiming to develop recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of persistent/recurrent pain after TMJ resection arthroplasty.