For years I and others like me arm wrestled on-line with other anonyms posters regarding the safety and effectiveness of NA. We had comparatively little in those days to convince our fellows that NA was a viable option to traditional invasive Open Surgery. Then Charles Eaton became the first American hand surgeon to offer the procedure and things began to change. But not all that much. The anti NA mantra espoused by all other CHS in North American was defining. So we had a lot of rhetoric but not much substance.

Now the Jury is in and we can point to countless sites to verify our claims. Being now lazy, here are just a few off the top:

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/...ns_disease.aspx

http://www.doctormahoney.com/dupy/dupyna.htm

http://orthopedics.about.com/od/dupuytre...se/p/needle.htm

http://www.doctorgrabow.com/index.aspx/D...le_Aponeurotomy

I like the one on About.com. Who can argue with that?

Sadly I'll tell you who. You local hand surgeon. Almost to a man they still want to have someone spend seven thousand dollars to cut you open. Given what is now proven, this is just *nuts*.

I'm curious, how many of you were told buy a surgeon that your only option would be Open Surgery? How many even mentioned NA as an option? Are things better now than I fear, or are we still waiting for most hand surgeons to wake up.

Two quite reputable hand surgeons said nothing about NA. Their combined fees for consultation: $500. Total face time 30 min.

The third, Dr Grabow, 30 min telephone consultation, $0. He did NA on both hands at the beginning of May. I'm doing what I wanted to do this summer instead of recovering from one surgery and anticipating another.

I went to the Dr. for a trigger thumb on my right hand. While there I asked if he knew what was going on with the fingers on my left hand. I learned a new word that day. Duputrens. He said they could fix it with surgery and that I could read about the procedure on the clinics web site. I went way beyond researching it on their web site and thank goodness I did. I had my NA two weeks ago. This past weekend I built a new pergola over my deck that included lifting four 16' 4"x10" beams in place. I would have still had a dressing on my hand from surgery. Actually my hand is still bandaged because I got a large skin tear but it is healing nicely. This only happens in a small % of cases. Hooray for the internet and web sites like this. The clinical trials for Xiaflex and cologenase are done and I think FDA approval is not too many months away so by the time my Duputrens comes back, if it does, there will be an alternate treatment. I had my NA done by Dr. Benheim at the UCLA medical plaza. I think he did a great job. He told me he has now done over 400 of these. If you look at his web site he has a short video of the procedure.

My hand specialist told me that I had to wait until my little finger PIP had contracted to 30 degrees before he would perform surgery to straighten the finger. He warned me that although the finger would be straight after surgery, the incidence of recurrence was very high and that he might have to use skin grafting or possibly leave an open wound to create a firewall to try to prevent the recurrence that happens very frequently with surgical correction of the PIP. When I asked about the needle procedure I had read about on the internet, he expressed surprise (and some dismay) that I knew about it. He then told me that since I was aware of NA, he would spend extra time with me to explain why he did not recommend it - going into the finger blindly, possible nerve damage, etc. Three months later at follow up, he pronounced the now 60 degree contracture as operable. I thanked him for his time, paid another copay and sent photos of my hand to Dr. Eaton. The photos posted by scion111 of his little finger PIP after NA by Dr. Pess and the postings of brian123 about the success of his NA with Dr. Eaton convinced me to go for it.

It has now been a month since my trip to Jupiter. In one hour, Dr. Eaton educated me thoroughly on Dups and successfully straightened my finger (66 degrees to 0). That afternoon I was driving my rental car around Jupiter seeing the sights. After a good night's sleep, I flew home handling my own luggage. My finger is straight, the nodule is greatly reduced in size and my hand is pain free with full mobility - a result better than I expected. I would not hesitate to have NA again if it recurs and will avoid surgery as long as I can. This forum has been a great source of information and support to me. This website and all the information Dr. Eaton takes the time to post on his site allowed me to access what I needed to make an informed decision. Thank you!

Is there a way to find surgeons in a particular area (Southern Tier of New York) who do NA? I have been unsuccessful so far.
Michael