Hi all. I'm 46 and have been from pillar to post about various hand problems over the last year and along the way got told I had the beginnings of Dupuytren's in my right hand. I also had a painful lump on my right forefinger which I was told was arthritis. It kills if I bang it and I've had it about 8 years. It digs in when I bend the finger and now I have smaller ones on other fingers and thumb. Today I finally got to see an expert (surgeon) who said it is a knuckle pad and means I will get Dupuytren's badly when the contracting starts. Feeling pretty depressed as I also have a trapped nerve on the left arm. He was insistent that someone in my mum's family must have had it but I know of no relatives with the condition. Does anyone else have these painful, bony lumps on their knuckles or know what you can do about them? My only relief is to wrap band aids around them so my fingers don't bend too much and hurt! Any positive thoughts or info about DC gratefully received too! :-(((
Knuckle pads are associated with DC. I had one for years before any contractures appeared. But the progression is unpredictable, I don't think it's at all certain your Dupuytren's will be severe. Contractures are now treatable by needle aponeurotomy and soon by an enzyme injection (both of which you'll read about on this forum).
Knuckle pads can be painfully sensitve at first but in time, that seems to abate. I've even had some disappear on their own over a period of years.
Don't be unduly worried about Dupuytren's. It may or may not become a serious problem and it's one that can usually be managed.
Claire - I have had the knucle pads in 4 fingers (BTW, they're called Garrod's pads) for years - in the beginning, they were painful, but I've adapted to them, and they don't seem to bother me now. I've given up knocking on doors, but that's about it - I go on about my life, and they haven't affected the things that I do. Cortisone injections do help, but they can be painful....
Thanks, I have put plasters on mine for now but it looks a bit daft and I can't bend the fingers. Mine don't look like the pictures of Garrod's pads though, they don't have any shiny flat skin on top but are little angular bits of bone that dig into the skin. They make the knuckle go up on one side and were originally diagnosed as osteo arthritis. What do other people's pads look like?
Thanks Wolfgang. Mine don't look like this. They aren't in the skin but under it and I can move the skin away from them and still see them. They seem to be attached to the bone and are only visible when I bend the finger, not when the fingers are straight. The skin over the joints looks completely normal and not smooth. I am thinking they are more likely to be arthritis but it's just such a co-incidence that I have DS.
Your finger looks similar to mine and I was diagnosed at the exact same time as having Osteo arthritis in that finger as DD in that hand. Both the DD and the arthritis developed at the same time. In an earlier forum subject I mentioned this, and thought both happening at the same time was odd.
When they had me do an MRI for the RT I had them take a real good look at that finger because I was concerned it was either DD or pads. Some mornings I can hear a noticable crack in that index finger when I bend it. And mine occasionally hurts and a hard knot can be felt below the skin.
That's interesting, the one in my thumb cracks too. I don't know which is the worst, artiritis or knuckle pads. If they are Garrod's pads it seems there is some chance of them going away, although from what I've read, that can co-incide with the DS starting the contracture process. I also have a ganglion on the underside of that forefinger joint which can be associated with arthritis too. Mine really hurts, like a little blade under the skin, and was the original reason I went to the doctor. Thanks for your comment. It's good to know I'm not alone!
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