Hello Richard, and welcome to Mayo Connect. We are a community of people, living with a variety of diseases and conditions, who try to share our experiences and help each other on our journeys. We are not medical professionals, hence we do not give medical advice.

I am a now retired female, very active seamstress, gardener and involved grandma who has had CMC repair done on both thumbs. At my age, I also have a great many friends who have had the procedure as well. So I will share some of that.

Based on the experience of friends, and on previous hand and wrist surgeries, I knew I needed to find and experienced hand surgeon, who does many CMC procedures and uses more than one technique. I did this by consulting with my trusted hand therapist and hip surgeon to see who in our area had the best results and reputation. You obviously have had the advantage of watching the surgeons in action.

I had each thumb done when it was at about 50-65% and steroid injections didn't help any more. The doctor cautioned that if I waited longer, I was in danger of requiring complete fusion surgery. This is the first thing to discuss with your hand surgeon. I had two friends who didn't believe me, waited until the joints collapsed, and ended up with full fusion and limited use.

The first surgery was 2 1/2 years ago, the surgeon explained 3 techniques, the traditional "anchovy" using tendon from my arm, "tightrope" surgery using two anchors and a nylon(?) tightrope to keep everything aligned, and using an introduced blood clot in place of the tendon.
He recommended the "tightrope" as having higher success and a shorter healing time. I was at 65% 8 weeks post surgery, 80% at 3 months. I was back to sewing and tending toddlers after 8 weeks. Occasional swelling occurred with overuse for about 6 months. I now have full use of that hand, but haven't tried doing CPR!

In June, I knew the second hand, my dominant left needed to be done, and I was as at maybe 50%, and found a new surgeon (the first, most excellent one moved away.) I asked about an implant because a friend had gotten it, and it seemed successful after a year. As a petite female with advanced osteoarthritis, my hand surgeon told me he would not consider Stablyx implants because they are (his word) finicky and he felt I didn't have enough bone for successful fusion. We again selected the tightrope as the best method, his placement of the pins and tightrope was a bit different than the first, and at 6 months I have 90% recovery on that hand and better range of motion than the first, with no pain or swelling.

I have spent much of 2020 sewing (masks and quilts) manipulating large swaths of fabric and using rotary cutters extensively with this new repair, and can say it was a success. After observing numerous friends have the CMC repairs with varying success, I believe that no matter which avenue you choose, the key is faithful PT/OT to recover use and strength. My friend and I who were diligent have few if any limits to what we can do. Others who were less so have more stiffness, pain and weaker grip.

Side note: With properly functioning thumbs, arthritis pain has subsided in my hands a bit as I am using them correctly again, not always trying to compensate for the painful, useless thumbs.

I wish you luck with whichever option you choose. If I were considering Stablyx, knowing it can fail, I would ask the surgeon what my options would be if it turned out not to work..
Sue