A few months ago, I posted about how pleased I was with my new custom night splint. Some people requested that I post photos of it. I agreed with Wolfgang that I would send photos and an account of my experience with the splint, to be included in the "personal experience" section of the website.

First, an apology that it's taken me so long to get that together. It's been quite a hectic summer. I do promise to send that information soon, but in the meantime wanted to tell you about the great progress I've had so far, as verified by my visit to my hand therapist today.

To recap the background -

In mid-April of this year, I traveled to see Dr. Eaton in Florida for advice on what to do about the increasing contracture in the PIP joint of my right pinkie. I had been told by two hand surgeons that they didn't think it was safe to do NA on that location, because of the risk of nerve damage. Dr. Eaton said he didn't necessarily think that was a "deal-breaker", as he put it. But he also said he didn't think I had to do the NA right away.

(to be continued)

Hi Maddie,

your experience matches what Albrecht Meinel described at the Miami conference in 2010. You can watch his presentation on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=882JB9cXDME&lr=1 . One of his first slides says "extension splinting can prevent finger contracture". He also shows a case where, after NA, the splinting improved the residual contracture further.

The theory behind this is that the cords are a reaction of the body to forces pulling on the original nodule. The nodule, as it grows, glues together connective tissue that originally was and had to be very flexible. As the skin loses its ability to fold and stretch every movement results in a pulling at this location. The body tries to stop this pulling by building a cord and fixing the finger. When you reduce the pulling, the cords reduce. That's at least roughly the idea. Additionally Meinel claims that the contracture is not an active process but a fixing of the relaxed finger position. Relaxed fingers are usually curled. Therefore Meinel believes that by wearing a night splint you can

a) avoid further progression or recurrence

b) even improve existing contracture

Your experience is supporting Albrecht Meinel's view. Thank you for your post!

Wolfgang
PS: If for some medical reason a Dupuytren's affected joint is surgically fixed into a stiff postition (sometimes that needs to be done) then the cords at that joint gradually vanish. That's also supporting the idea that cords are a reaction to pulling forces.

Edited 08/08/12 13:18

Are your splints keeping the finger(s) straight, or with a slight natural curve?

I found using a night splint that keeps the fingers straight to be very uncomfortable, and it also led to having stiff finger joints in the mornings. For those reasons I stopped.

That is encouraging. Looking forward to your photos and to see what your splint looks like.

Do you need a prescription from a doctor or can you go straight to a CHT?
Would a custom splint work better than gloves that look something like this?

What is a CHT?
My right hand goes numb and tingles at night, so I bought a night splint for Carpol Tunnel (spelling??). I added some extra soft pipe foam to rest my hand on it. I guess I made my own splint, but maybe a custom one might be better. There is also a fixx glove on the german site that can be purchased.

Christl