Therapies for Dupuytren's contracture and Ledderhose disease with possibly less benefit

Transdermal Verapamil

This topical treatment ("topical verapamil") claims to remodel damaged tissue into healthy tissue. The gel needs to be applied for a long period of time (6 - 12 months?), is very expensive, and often not covered by insurance. There is very little evidence and to our knowledge no scientific proof that it helps against Dupuytren's contracture or Ledderhose disease. Anecdotal evidence in forums is more along a recent comment from a patient: "Verapamil is completely ineffective. The only thing it will reduce is your bank balance". Note that this statement referred to treating Ledderhose, not to e.g. treating scar tissue which might possibly work.

Vitamin E

High doses of Vitamin E have been proposed to treat Dupuytren's contracture. We do not know of any statistical proof of its effectiveness in treating Dupuytren's disease. In the contrary, already more than 50 years ago a study rendered Vitamin E useless (RA King "Vitamin E therapy in Dupuytren's contracture; examination of the claim that vitamin therapy is successful." full_text).

We are also very reluctant with regard to regular Vitamin supplements, specifically in high doses. There is some indication that high doses of antioxidants can increase mortality: "Beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E, singly or combined, significantly increased mortality" JAMA_antioxidants. See also emedicine_vitamine_E. - Rsearch in mice showed that administering antioxidants in case of cancer may strongly increase the risk of mestastases (CRI_article).

Homeopathy

Though some patients had positive results with homeopathic therapies of other diseases, so far results with homeopathic therapy of Dupuytren's have been, at best, marginal. Nevertheless, successful therapies might exist, and feedback is welcome. But positive results for Dupuytren's/Ledderhose seem to be very rare and failure the typical outcome. Unfortunately homeopathic treatments are customized for each patient and may or may not work for the next one.

 

Page last modified: 01/11/2017