Hi all, Just registered and lucky to have found this forum.

Im 29 years old male living in Sydney and have been diagnosed with Dupuytrens on my left hand ring finger. After 6 months of it getting larger and my dr ignoring it he finally sent me for a referral waiting 1 month to get in and see the hand specialist. Looks like ive inherited it from my father. From what I’ve heard it’s wise to leave it till it gets worse. At the moment I can fully extend my finger and have no issues with opening or closing my hand just more of an annoyance.

Anyone else in Sydney with this?

Hello and welcome to the club.

Dr Dilly is the Sydney doctor recommended on this site for his specialist knowledge of Dups. He's based in Concord, although he told me to adopt the counter intuitive approach of 'wait and see' if the condition gets worse. He does NA (Needle Aponeurotomy) for conditions that are more progressed than mine and have chords.

I have a small nodule so I have been searching for a local doctor that carries out RT (radiation) for early stage Dups like mine. Dr Martin Borg (recommended on this site) is based in Adelaide, and he informed me that Dr Jackson from Sydney POW does RT, so I am waiting on a reply from him.

Tool around this site for lots of info on the available options:
1/Do nothing
2/Surgery
3/NA
4/RT (for early stage nodules)
5/Xiaflex
5/Quit or reduce alcohol intake (I added this one, as personally my Dups flares up after a binge, but this is inconclusive).

All the best and I hope this helps,

Julie

Edited 10/24/13 03:27

I live in Brisbane and have DD which has been treated by RT at a Brisbane oncology clinic. I had nodules for about 15 years before treatment was needed. My father and two brothers have DD. I decided to get RT when the disease got very active after a long period of latency. This was when I was in my late 50s about the time my father started getting a contraction.

My suggestion is consistent with the above, keep watch, look after your hands and if the nodules grow and cords develop, seek RT when the disease is active, before contractions develop. Active disease is indicated by itchy, tingling, tight achy hands with growing nodules and cords. I also had some numbness in one finger and acute pain on stretching but this was specific to my hands I think.

Otherwise investigate the other treatment options as needed as contractions develop.

No need to panic, this disease comes and goes and you may never need treatment.

Hi Igor; I too live in Sydney. My view is just carry on as normal and adjust what you are doing only when it becomes a problem. And by adjust I don't mean that you should stop doing things only that you might need to adjust your grip or wear different gloves.

It is tempting to review what you were doing when the lumps started to grow and conclude that a particular activity is contributing to the progression of the disease. Trouble is that you might stop rock climbing at a time that coincides with a dormant period for your DD. You give up something you enjoy only to find that the DD was just having a rest and it starts up again a few years later.

I have had DD and LD for 45 years or so. I started weight lifting at highschool and have been working out in gyms the whole of my adult life. I have had periods where I have worked out with very heavy weights with low reps and other periods where I have tried to loose a bit of bulk with high reps and smaller weights. These days I am in the gym 5-6 days per week and I typically start with 45 minutes on an elliptical trainer then into the weights for 20 minutes. In addition I play tennis 3 times a week. I say all this simply to make the point that my hands get to do a lot of work. Maybe there is an impact on my DD but I take the view that the health benefits of exercise far outweigh any impact on my DD.

Then we have the fact that my exercise regime has been constant over the past 45 years but the progression of my DD has been intermittent. Sometimes years passed with no progression at all then there were periods with lots of activity over a short period before going dormant again. During other periods I have felt changes happening but slowly with the only sign being an itchy creepy crawling feeling in parts of my hands.

I have noticed that the DD is getting more active as I get older so maybe the answer is stop aging.

So my advice is carry on with the rock climbing. There is no way of telling how long from lumps to cords and contraction. And it may never happen. Maybe you will be lucky and it will stop with a few lumps or progress so slowly that you won't need treatment for a long time.

Hi Seph,

stupid question: did you recently change your email address? If so, please snd a note either to me or to the Society http://www.dupuytren-online.info/contactform.html. Thank you!

Wolfgang

Seph:

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Hi Igor; I too live in Sydney. My view is just carry on as normal and adjust what you are doing only when it becomes a problem. And by adjust I don't mean that you should stop doing things only that you might need to adjust your grip or wear different gloves.

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