I had severe stage III dupuytrens on my left little finger with PIP joint bend of 90 degrees. On Nov 7th I flew to Dr. Denklers office in Larkspur after canceling an appointment with a surgeon in Tacoma, WA that my insurance company required me to do prior to authorizing an out of network procedure at Dr Denklers. This surgeon convinced me that because of the 90 degree bend there was a better than 50% chance NA would tear the nerve so I made an appointment for surgery to be done on Nov 14th. This surgeon advertises that he performs NA that is why my insurance sent me to him I have now found out he has never done NA or been trained, my conclusion is just get them in the door to scare them into surgery.
Below is part of an email I sent to Dr. Denkler today.
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know it is Sunday morning at 10:00 am just removed the splint from my little finger and couldn’t be any happier with what I saw. There is very little swelling and it moves I actually can close and open the finger this really surprised me that I have enough strength with the pip joint being frozen for 5 plus years that I can open and move the finger I wasn’t expecting this without therapy. The motion is limited right now but in time with therapy am hoping to gain almost full motion. There is some pain in the joint but not as bad as I expected. I would say the biggest down side to NA at your office was the traffic to Oakland Airport at 6:00 pm on a Friday evening. Again I really want to thank you and your staff for everything it seems strange but I really enjoyed the experience especially considering the alternative with surgery.

I just stumbled across this site about 2 months ago looking for an alternative or something to surgery. I also had dupuytrens 18 years ago on my right little finger after 2 operations a cast, pinned joint and 2 months of therapy did not want to go through it again. Thanks to everyone posting on this site I can sit here 52 hours after NA typing this post able to pick up a Vitamin Water with all 5 fingers NO Pain.

RMC,

Yours is the kind of post that many of us in the NA movement are always glad to see. It keeps us going!

While I'm on record for bring hard on hand surgeons, I'd like to think that the doc in question was actually doing what he though was best for you. However, deliberately deceiving a patient about NA being part of his practice is a *first*. How did you find out? Doubtless *he* is the one deceived and/or woefully misinformed. You are no longer. Congrats on a good outcome.

It is usually very hard to get good correction a PIP with NA or Open Surgery, especially with 90 degrees for five years. I assume you have a night splint. Crank that splint down the best you can. It may be stiff in the morning but will loosen up quickly. You may need to push a bit into some pain to get your best results. Now is the time to do that, however. All the Best!

I had a successful NA with Dr. Denkler on Nov 4, 2006 - little finger PIP at 90 degrees. After the procedure, per Dr. Denkler's recommendation I went to a specialized hand physical therapist for some time and wore a night splint. After two years, I still wear a loose night splint just to prevent "curling up" of the affected finger. I'm not sure if this is useful, but the finger is as straight as it was (maybe 15-20 degrees) when the procedure was completed. Hope this helps.

Wolfgang,

That looks pretty good. I'm having trouble getting the link to fixxglove on internet to work but I'll keep trying.

No, it just "hangs". But I persisted and finally got it to kick over. I did find an order form for the whole hand glove splint but for not for the "custom" single finger splint. maybe because it really does have to be custom built. What I still have from my PT looks something like the custom single finger splint pictured but I'd buy a new one like the one pictured if it was available without the need to go somewhere and have it custom built. Thanks again.