Columbus-based Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center now offers a joint replacement for thumb arthritis, joining a small, but growing, group of U.S. sites performing the procedure.
Ryan Schmucker, MD, a plastic surgeon who specializes in hand surgery at Ohio State, trained on the procedure in France earlier this year, according to an Oct. 5 news release from the health system.
The dual-mobility, ball-and-socket implant has been used in Europe for the last decade but is only now being introduced in the U.S., where few surgeons have been trained to perform it.
Philadelphia-based Rothman Orthopaedics performed the first U.S. case of a dual-mobility total joint replacement for the thumb’s basal joint after the technology received FDA clearance in July 2025, with Richard Tosti, MD, performing the first procedures that October.
Since then, surgeons have debuted the procedure in Florida, Nevada and Rhode Island.
Traditional surgery for thumb arthritis involves removing bone and moving tendons around the thumb, with larger incisions, prolonged therapy and recoveries that can last 12 weeks. The implant procedure takes about an hour, is done on an outpatient basis and leaves a small incision at the base of the thumb. Patients start moving the thumb that evening and are back to work and hobbies within six to eight weeks. Hand therapy typically isn’t needed, though Dr. Schmucker often refers patients for at least one session.
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