Splinting Is Effective Treatment for Base-of-Thumb Osteoarthritis

Base-of-thumb osteoarthritis can be very painful. Some guidelines for treatment of base-of-thumb osteoarthritis recommend splinting -- if it is symptomatic. According to a report in the May 19, 2009 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, one study of 112 people compared wearing a custom-made neoprene splint with usual care. Results showed that after one month, there was no difference in pain level from baseline between the splint group or the control (non-splint group).

However, at 12 months, there was greater change in the patient's pain level in the splint group than the other group. At 12 months, 86% of the splint group had worn the splint for more than 5 nights a week with no adverse effects. One thing to remember though -- when considering the results -- the splints were custom-made and patients knew if they had splints on. It wasn't a blind study. Researchers still concluded that nighttime splinting is an effective treatment for base-of-thumb osteoarthritis.

Related Resources:

• Thumb Osteoarthritis - What You Need to Know
• Hand Osteoarthritis - What You Need to Know
• Finger Osteoarthritis - What You Need to Know
• Hand Osteoarthritis - EULAR Treatment Guidelines
• More About Thumb Osteoarthritis

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