Private Hand Surgery in Berkshire

Base of thumb (CMC or basal joint) arthritis is wear of the small saddle-shaped joint where the thumb meets the wrist, the joint that gives your thumb its remarkable range and takes remarkable load doing it: pinching a key transmits many times that force through this one joint. As cartilage wears, gripping, pinching and twisting become painful, pinch strength fades, and in later stages the joint can sit out of line. (snippet-target)

It's one of the most common arthritic joints in the hand, particularly in women over 50, and it is emphatically not the same as De Quervain's (a tendon problem in the same neighbourhood, different treatment entirely; examination separates them in minutes).

Splints and smart adaptations are genuinely effective early rungs: a well-fitted thumb base splint for loaded tasks, jar openers and lever aids without shame, and technique changes that spare pinch. Steroid injection into the joint can settle a flared thumb for months at a time and can be repeated judiciously; relief varies with arthritis stage, and we'll be honest about expectations. Surgery, most commonly trapeziectomy (removing the small worn bone at the thumb's base, sometimes with a supporting suspension procedure), reliably relieves pain in the great majority, and demands the most honest sentence on this page: recovery is measured in months. Splinting for weeks, useful function returning over two to three months, strength building for up to a year. Patients who know that beforehand are consistently glad they had it done; patients who weren't told are consistently cross. You'll be told. (TO CONFIRM: which surgical options Apex offers, including any joint replacement alternatives.

Apex Medical was founded by Mr Kuen Yeow Chin, Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Clinical Lead for Plastic Surgery at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. Hand and nerve surgery, including Dupuytren's contracture, carpal tunnel and trigger finger, is one of his defining specialisms, and he is a member of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH).

Your consultation, your procedure and your follow-up are with the same consultant throughout: the surgeon who assesses your hand is the surgeon who treats it.

Examination plus an X-ray for grading; your symptoms and hand-use inventory matter more than the image.

Splint fitting and adaptations; injection where a flare needs settling, often same visit.

Many patients manage well for years with splints and occasional injections, and that's success, not delay.

Trapeziectomy: about an hour, day case, under regional or general anaesthetic; a cast or splint for the early weeks.

Hand therapy, staged strengthening, and reviews across months; pain relief arrives well before full strength, and both are worth the wait. (TO CONFIRM therapy arrangements.)

The honest month-by-month after trapeziectomy (cast weeks, therapy weeks, useful hand at 2 to 3 months, strength to a year), splint life for non-surgical patients, flare management plan.

Apex Medical is based at Berkshire Grove Hospital in Maidenhead, with clinics also at the Parkside Suite.
Patients travel to us from Reading, Windsor, Slough, Marlow, Bracknell, London and across Berkshire, Surrey and Oxfordshire for consultant-led care in a regulated private hospital, without long waiting times. On-site parking is available.

Common questions about ytren's contracture at Apex Medical