Treating Thumb Arthritis in Lexington, KY

Thumb arthritis is degenerative osteoarthritis, so it's that normal wear and tear similar to arthritic knees or arthritic hips, but it just happens in the base of the thumb. Thumb arthritis typically affects the non dominant hand a little bit more often, and that's usually because of gripping and pinching. So every time we pinch with our fingertips, we're loading that joint, and sometimes we can load that joint up to twenty times. It's a joint pressures that are typically there.

So looking at how we treat thumb arthritis, there are really two kind of components. We have the nonsurgical and the surgical. So it's looking at the nonsurgical options that typically starts with anti inflammatories, both oral, topical anti inflammatories work. And then we also have injections, and the injections are steroid injections.

So injecting the thumb base can really help relieve those symptoms, but they're very similar to injections you might get for your knees or for your hips, and this is actually a really unique part of the body. You can have as many injections as you want because this is an area where I can actually remove that arthritis if ever became a surgical option. So the surgery for thumb CMC arthritis is actually removing a small bone called the trapezium. So we remove that bone and then fashion tendons together to provide a nice hammock and base for the thumb to rest on.

So I got into hand surgery because I love thumb arthritis. I love treating it both non operatively and operatively. So if you've been told that there's nothing that can be done for your thumb arthritis, I would really encourage a visit into a hand surgeon's office office so you can discuss your options, and I would love to treat you.