Having been told by my GP that the lumps on my fingers were ganglion cysts, the orthopaedic surgeon I saw today tells me that they are knuckle pads associated with Dupuytren's disease. As I already have been diagnosed with Lederhosen's Disease on my right foot, I'm not entirely surprised.

The surgeon was lovely and he agreed to do both hands at the same time, and under local, which is better for me and my work situation, but we did only talk about surgery as an option. My question is, does anyone know if it is possible to check on the reputation of surgeons in the UK? I am confident he is a "proper doctor" but I would like some reassurance that he is not trigger happy on the surgery front and I would feel better if I knew a bit more about his previous experience, results, awareness of other therapies etc.

Thanks for your comments.

Heidi

I'm in the north, near Leeds. The answer to all your other comments is no! From what I've read, there's an about even balance of negative/positive experiences for surgery for knuckle pads. They are growing apace and restricting some movement, so I had decided to go for surgery, but now I am not so sure...

thanks for your response!

I hadn't seen that thread, it was very useful, thank you. I guess I will be asking my GP to try a few other things before surgery...