Hi,
So, my history is a little complicated! I had bilateral carpal tunnel surgery 7 years ago, and almost immediately after I had stiff, sore hands (associated with the wrist splints that make my fingers curl over) and went for some physical therapy to loosen them up about 6 years ago. my hands have always been stiff in the mornings and I've found it very hard to do things like the Scout hand symbol thing!

Over the last few months my hands have got more and more sore and stiff, especially in the mornings, they tend to "stick" in position. I can more or less stretch it out, except for one finger which has got much much worse in the last month or so, the ring finger on my right hand. I also have a small lump below that finger, right above the top crease in my palm. Classic Dupuytren's, right?

My doctor thinks I might have a combination of a return of the carpal tunnel, plus this problem with my ring finger. I am waking up occasionally with classic carpal tunnel pain and tingling in both hands, with this as an added extra!

Has anyone had experience of having two things at once in their hands? I have been referred to physiotherapy (which can take up to 6 weeks) as they can offer splints and steroid injections, and they can refer me to the hand clinic if they think it's necessary. I'd like to see the surgeon who did my carpal tunnel operations, ideally, she was great and has written a paper on Dupuytren's.

I've uploaded a pic of how my hand was yesterday :-(

So, does anyone have any experience, or advice on how to cope with it all until I get to see someone?
Thanks
x

Edited 01/12/15 14:08

Linda, my partner, had a double Carpel Tunnel release and has found that if she does not wear wrist restaraints at night she gets sore, stiff, nmb hands in the morning. Difficult to move for an hour or so....

We made some simple restraints from a plastic squeezy bottle cut to cover almost all the way around the wrist, part of the arm and the hand and then glued some 1/2" foam inside plus a bit more so the plastic does not rub.

The foam is then covered in a simple cloth like an old bed sheet and glued with contact, add a velcro closure and you can pop them on at night easily.

Really worked for her so I would try it - maye 30 minutes to make a pair. I can send you a picture if you need so easier to PM me with your email.

Best

RD

Surgeons tend to ignore the fact that any surgery can trigger Dupuytren's. While it is generally accepted that a "trauma" (= injury) can trigger Dupuytren's, it is often ignored that surgery usually is a major trauma. It is true that CTS is not related to Dupuytren's but a CTS surgery might trigger growth of Dupuytren nodules. After I had a fasciectomy to straighten one of my fingers, I had six new nodules quickly growing within a couple of months, 3 ony each hand. For me radiotherapy helped and put all six nodules to rest. Today, about 15 years after surgery they are still dormant.

I believe I had small, infant nodules already before the surgery but was not aware of them. Surgery triggered them into rapid growth. This doesn't happen for each and everyone, actually for most patients with surgery this is not the case. But it is certainly a risk.

Wolfgang

slsteadman:

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Hi all,
This is my first log on, I hope someone will see this that has had the same problems. I too had carpal tunnel, caused by 20 years if repetitive movements working for the food service industry. I had carpal tunnel release on my right wrist in August of 2014, after six weeks I started to notice the nodules in my palm, soreness in my ring and pinkie finger and difficulty grasping most objects. My surgeon diagnosed it as DD, but said it nothing to do with my carpal tunnel. In December of 2014 I had carpal tunnel release on my left hand and guess what? About 6 weeks later I had nodules in my left palm..Again, my surgeon said that it wasn't connected to my previous surgery.
I am now soon to be released to go back to work, but my pinkie and ring fingers are soooo stiff and I can't make a strong fist or grasp things very well, even after weeks of therapy. The DD in my hands, though not contracture yet, seems to be moving faster than the literature indicates. I am concerned that I won't be able to perform my job anymore and that I'll be left on my own to seek additional help.

Any help, advice, similar experiences would be really helpful.

What you observed is probably not related to the Koebner phenomenon but similar to Koebner, it is a not understood side effect. Growing nodules after surgery may have been triggered into growth by the healing process. This means that you had dormant, tiny and unrecognized nodules and when the massive healing process started they started to grow as well.

After surgery my hand has still difficulties handling sophisticated tasks. I experienced a similar effect after Xiaflex injection but that improved over time. In my case I believe the swelling of my hand after the injection had caused a part of my problems yet after the swelling was gone (2-3 weeks after injection) I still had pain in the joints of my treated hand. Eventually this vanished.

If you cannot grip or hold anything in your hand then you might still have some sort of inflammation. What is your doctor's advice?

Wolfgang

Sherise:

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Hi all,

There is always the Koebner phenomenon. This is what happen to me. The surgery for DC caused a flare in all my fingers, when I only had one pinky slightly effected. After surgery all fingers were curled, it was a flare from surgery. Then NA and XIAFLEX injections made the nodules huge and more than I initially had in my palms and fingers. Now I cannot grip or hold anything in the DC hand. Wear a splint for night for a year is the time in order to prevent them from curling at night. See link below on Keobner phenomenon. Every attempt to repair DC has resulted in the Keobner effect made my hand worse.

Anyone else have this problem???

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21396563