COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOWO) — A central Ohio orthopedic surgeon is among a small number of doctors in the country performing a newly available procedure for thumb arthritis that could significantly shorten recovery time for patients.

Dr. Stephen Berling, an orthopedic hand surgeon with OhioHealth, performed the procedure in July on Julia Brown, a patient who had dealt with severe pain in both thumbs for about two and a half years.

Brown said the condition affected her ability to perform everyday tasks, even though she was still able to use her hands.

“I could still use my hands; I could still use my thumbs and everything prior to the surgery, but there was a lot of pain, tremendous amount of pain, actually,” Brown said.

Brown previously worked as a medical assistant and relied heavily on her hands and thumbs. She now works as an author and caretaker, making hand function important to her daily life.

“It was extremely painful to do this with my left hand at the time,” Brown said while demonstrating how difficult ordinary movements could be.

Brown has thumb carpometacarpal arthritis, a form of arthritis that affects the joint at the base of the thumb. Berling said it is among the conditions he frequently treats in his hand-surgery practice.

The new procedure uses a specialized implant rather than removing the arthritic bone in the traditional operation.

Berling described the surgery as essentially a miniature hip replacement for the thumb. The implant includes a cup placed in the joint and a stem that extends into the metacarpal bone.

“Previously, this would be the bone you’d be removing from that standpoint. So, what we do now is put a cup the same way you have on the inside of your hip in there and then there is a stem that goes up into the metacarpal and that allows for that immediate stability and motion right away so you can use it,” Berling said.

According to Berling, the procedure has been performed in Europe for about a decade. The implant received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year.

Berling was the first surgeon in Ohio to perform the procedure, according to the report.

The surgery takes about 45 minutes and does not require an overnight hospital stay.

One of the biggest differences is the recovery period.

Berling said traditional thumb arthritis surgery can require six to nine months of recovery. With the new procedure, he said recovery can take approximately six to nine weeks.

“I think the biggest thing is that it gets people back to life a lot faster, it preserves your strength a lot quicker, and makes your thumb feel like your thumb a lot faster without the pain,” Berling said.

For Brown, the results have already made a noticeable difference.

She said she can use her left hand normally and no longer feels the same pain she experienced before surgery.

“It’s remarkable when you can wake up and be pain-free in a certain part of your body where you have pain in other parts, that just gives you a lot of hope on what the future can be,” Brown said.

Brown is still able to tell she has had other joint-replacement surgery, including a knee replacement. But she said her surgically treated thumb feels completely different.

“Using my hand daily, I don’t feel I ever had surgery in my left hand at all, and that’s pretty great. Because I can still tell I had knee replacement. I can still feel and know I had that, but this thumb — nothing,” Brown said.

Berling said several patients who have undergone the new procedure on one hand have already scheduled surgery for their other hand.

Brown is scheduled to have the procedure performed on her right thumb later this fall.

The new implant does not eliminate the need for surgery for patients with severe thumb arthritis, but Berling said the procedure is designed to preserve strength and allow patients to regain movement more quickly than with the traditional operation.

For patients like Brown, the goal is ultimately straightforward: less pain, greater use of the hand and a faster return to everyday life.