Finger joint replacement buys pain relief and straighter fingers, not more movement or more strength. The scar capsule that forms around the implant is what holds the result, which is why the splinting programme decides the outcome.
Fusion sounds like the worst option and is the most reliable one for pain. A fused wrist still turns palm-up and palm-down, because rotation happens somewhere else entirely, and finger fusions are set at an angle chosen for the job that finger does.
Most wrist arthritis under 60 is the ending of an old injury: a missed scapholunate tear or a scaphoid that never healed. The wear follows a predictable route, and every surgical option trades movement for pain relief.
Gout in the fingers arrives overnight, peaks in a day, and looks identical to a joint infection. It also has two separate treatments that people constantly confuse: one ends the attack, the other ends the disease.