Evaluation of Adipose Cell-Based Therapies for the Treatment of Thumb Carpometacarpal Joint Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Adipose tissue and its regenerative products which are isolated with enzymatic or mechanical processing of the harvested fat have been studied in a wide range of degenerative diseases, including osteoarthritis of the knee and hip. Intra-articular injection of these products can provide symptomatic relief of pain and postpone surgery. However, their use in the treatment of thumb carpometacarpal joint (CMCJ) osteoarthritis is limited and just a few studies have been published on that topic. For this reason, a review of the literature was performed by a thorough search of eight terms using the Pubmed database. In total, seven human studies met the selection criteria, including case-control studies, case-series and one case report. In all studies, intra-articular injection of autologous fat in osteoarthritic thumb CMCJ provided reduction in pain and improvement in hand function. Grip and pinch strength showed variable results, from no change to significant improvement. Fat-processing techniques were based on centrifugation and mechanical homogenization but biological characterization of the injected cells was not performed in any study. Although the results are encouraging, a uniformly standardized method of fat processing and the conduction of randomized controlled trials in the future could better evaluate the effectiveness of this procedure for thumb CMCJ osteoarthritis.