PHILADELPHIA (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Sip your morning coffee. Button your shirt. Check your e-mail. Imagine doing those everyday things without using your thumbs. That's what many Americans with arthritis experience. Now, surgeons are using a new technique to help patients regain their mobility.

Like most of us, 57-year-old Gregg Frederick took his hands for granted until osteoarthritis made it impossible to pinch his fingers together.

"You just don't realize that a simple thing like buttoning a shirt, it's very hard to do some of those things, especially your sleeves, with one hand," Frederick told Ivanhoe.

Osteoarthritis of the thumb is one of the most common forms of arthritis. Over a lifetime, the small joint on the bottom of the hand becomes stressed from pinching and grasping.

When cartilage wears out, bone rubs against bone, causing sharp pain. In severe cases, surgeons previously had to fuse or even remove one bone, which limited hand mobility.

Now, doctors are using a new technique to stabilize the joint and eliminate pain. Surgeons insert a small spacer between the bones made from a polymer called Artelon. It looks and feels like a tiny lawn chair.

"Then, what happens is cells grow down here and replace things. It provides a matrix, or template, into which the cells grow," A. Lee Osterman, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, told Ivanhoe.

Over time, the Artelon dissolves, leaving behind the patient's own tissue to cushion the joint.

Most patients regain full strength within a year. Frederick is now pain-free as he buttons, grasps, and flips, over and over, through his workday.

Dr. Osterman says the ideal patient for this procedure is in the early stages of osteoarthritis and has not responded to conservative treatments like wearing a splint or taking anti-inflammatory medication. He says patients usually remain pain-free for at least 10 years.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT:

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals
Philadelphia, PA
(800) JEFF-NOW
http://www.jeffersonhospital.org