Northwest Specialty Hospital offers Idaho’s first thumb-joint implant surgery

Northwest Specialty Hospital in Post Falls is now offering Idaho’s first thumb-joint implant surgery, giving patients with painful thumb-base arthritis a local option for a procedure aimed at restoring grip, pinch and everyday motion. For Sandra Weber, a former optician who spent a decade helping people choose glasses, worsening thumb pain became severe enough that she retired. She said she wanted to play pickleball again and hug her grandkids without pain, a reminder that arthritis in the thumb can take away work, independence and simple family contact.

Dr. Chad Turner performed three of the operations Friday at Northwest Specialty Hospital, calling them the first of their kind in the region. The TOUCH CMC 1 Prosthesis is a cementless, ball-and-socket dual-mobility replacement for the first carpometacarpal joint, the joint at the base of the thumb. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it is intended for patients with symptomatic Eaton-Littler stage II or III osteoarthritis, meaning people whose thumb-base arthritis has progressed beyond the earliest stage and is causing real pain and loss of function.

Turner said about half of hand function depends on the thumb, which is why damage to that joint can make even small movements feel impossible. For Kootenai County patients, the new option means specialized hand surgery is now available closer to home in Post Falls instead of sending them out of the area for care. That matters in practical terms: fewer trips, less time away from work or family, and a better chance of reaching treatment before pain forces more people to give up activities they value.

The device is not brand new to medicine. The FDA approved the TOUCH CMC 1 Prosthesis on July 10, 2025, and granted it breakthrough device status in 2021. It has been used in Europe for more than a decade, with more than 135,000 patients treated there, and that long track record is now helping bring the technology into American practice.

ClinicalTrials.gov lists a post-approval U.S. study expected to enroll 163 people, with a start date of March 2026 and completion projected for February 2030. Earlier research published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that among 37 patients who received 40 prostheses, disability scores improved from 54 to 12 at one year, pain scores fell from 8 to 1 and key-pinch strength rose from 3.8 to 5.8. The same study reported 10 complications, including tendon-related problems and one dislocation, but no cup loosening, tilting or subsidence. For Post Falls and the broader Inland Northwest, the surgery marks a rare local expansion of advanced hand care.