In the last two decades, surgeons have rapidly developed arthroscopic techniques to treat basal joint osteoarthritis. Such techniques spare the joint capsule and ligaments, allow more accurate staging of cartilage degeneration to determine the most appropriate treatment, and decrease the risk of injury to the radial artery and superficial branch of the radial nerve. Arthroscopic resection arthroplasty of the trapezium can be performed as either partial or complete trapeziectomy. Many papers have described partial trapeziectomy but few have discussed complete trapeziectomy.Suture button implants avoid the drawbacks of temporary fixation using Kirschner wire, as well as the drawbacks of ligament reconstruction, which necessitates the sacrifice of a tendon and involves both wide exposure and scar tissue.This paper aimed to review the published data on the arthroscopic treatment of basal thumb osteoarthritis, with a special focus on stabilization using suture button suspensionplasty, and to present a technique that structures this procedure into three steps, allowing it to be performed in an easier, more organized, and faster way.

The concurrence of tears of the scapholunate (SL) and lunotriquetral (LT) ligaments is not unusual and can also occur without an apparent perilunate dislocation. Badia and Khanchandani called this combined lesion a “floating lunate” because the ligamentous attachments on both sides of the lunate are absent and the lunate floats in a neutral position. There have been few published papers referring to the treatment of this kind of instability. In recent years, we have developed an arthroscopic ligamentoplasty for SL instability. However, this procedure is not indicated whether the LT ligament is also damaged. With this current modification, both the strongest portions of the SL and LT ligaments can be reconstructed without opening the joint, thereby avoiding an open approach. We have described this as an “S”-shaped ligamentoplasty, as the graft resembles an “S” as it travels inside the scaphoid, lunate, and triquetrum. The same postoperative early mobilization protocol can be applied to this kind of reconstruction.

No abstract