A Comparison of Perioperative Complications of Hand and Wrist Arthroplasty for Osteoarthrosis by Orthopedic Versus Plastic Surgeons

Background: Arthroplasty is commonly performed in the management of osteoarthrosis of the hand and wrist by orthopedic or plastic surgeons with a fellowship in hand. The differences between operative outcomes between the 2 groups have not been described. Therefore, we analyzed a national database to determine acute outcomes between orthopedic and plastic surgery when performing arthroplasty for osteoarthrosis of the hand and wrist.Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis was performed by including patients with osteoarthrosis of the hand and wrist by International Classification of Diseases codes. Demographic, operative, and outcome variables were collected. Pearson chi 2 and Fischer exact tests were used for categorical variables, while a Mann-Whitney U test was performed for continuous variables. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to determine strength of predictors.Results: There were 3721 patients who received arthroplasty for osteoarthrosis of the hand and wrist from 2007 to 2020. Most cases were performed by orthopedic surgeons (82.7%); however, there were an increasing number of surgeries performed by plastic surgeons. Most cases were performed on the intercarpal or carpometacarpal joints (81.7%). The incidence of acute complications was low (1.9%) with superficial surgical site infections (SSIs) being the most common complication. Univariate analysis found that plastic surgery may result in higher chances of superficial SSIs, but multivariate analysis indicated that there were no significant differences between the 2 groups.Conclusion: There were no significant differences on multivariate regression analysis between plastic and orthopedic surgeons, suggesting that both can perform arthroplasty of the hand and wrist without safety concerns.