Chronic thumb UCL injuries may have higher failure rates vs. acute injuries
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BOSTON — Results presented at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting showed patients with chronic thumb ulnar collateral ligament injuries had a higher rate of failure compared with patients who had acute injuries.
“However, overall, the rates [of failure] are low, and primary repair of chronic thumb UCL injuries is a reasonable option if there are adequate soft tissue ligamentous elements,” Brittany Garcia, MD, of the University of Utah, said in her presentation.
In a combined retrospective chart review and national claims database review, Garcia and colleagues identified adults who underwent primary repair of acute or chronic thumb UCL injuries.
“The primary outcome was failure, which was defined as conversion to [metacarpophalangeal joint] arthrodesis following index repair or conversion to reconstruction. Those were identified by CPT coding in the database part,” Garcia said. “Then chronic [injury] was defined as greater than or equal to 6 weeks based on historical references.”
Garcia noted a failure rate of approximately 7.1% among 56 patients with chronic injuries identified in the single-institution chart review.
In the database review, researchers found approximately 3,000 patients underwent UCL repair in the acute setting and approximately 750 patients underwent UCL repair in the chronic setting. Patients in the acute setting had a failure rate of about 5%, according to Garcia.
“In the chronic setting, the rate of failure is about 8.6% and that is statistically significant when you look at the odds ratios between these two groups,” Garcia said.
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Garcia B, et al. Paper 39. Presented at: American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting; Sept. 29 - Oct. 1, 2022; Boston.
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