Thumb carpometacarpal joint reaction force during distraction: a cadaveric study

Amin Rezaeian, Hamed Hafiz, Ali Moradi, Alireza Akbarzadeh, Mahla Daliri

A recent method with promising results for treating thumb carpometacarpal joint (CMCJ) osteoarthritis involves applying distractive force to unload the stress between the two sides of the joint (Ottenhoff et al., 2021; Spaans et al., 2017). However, this method has not yet been standardized clinically and the optimal amount of external distraction force needed to overcome the joint reaction force (JRF) still remains unclear. Forces less than this optimal point would not offload the joint, whereas excessive force would induce distraction injury to the capsule and ligaments resulting in further subluxation and progression of osteoarthritis (Leong et al., 1979). We conducted a study on four fresh whole-body cadavers to assess the optimized amount of force necessary to overcome the pressure and distract the thumb CMCJ.

Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/JCXFDBNXUKBHUSV7TJTJ/full