Juli,

Thanks so much for your reply. I shall certainly be contacting Dr Eaton for his opinion. I am not sure he will treat patients from the UK however. We'll see, because this might mean a trip to Florida next year - what a great excuse!

I hope things continue to go well for you.

Having DC in both hands and it getting progressively worse I read with interest the postings on this site. My question is: why is there only one doctor performing NA in the US, or it appears N. America? Given the reports of overwhelming successs and the problems associated with surgery why aren't there more physicians doing the procedure? Needing to be trained in France is not a good reason. If the procedure is even a fraction as successful as all these reports it is incomprehensible that more hand or orth doctors haven't learned the procedure and that insurance coverage hasn' been extended to NA. If is clear the costs and recovery are considerably less and it would be a savings. Has anyone followed up with insurance providers at a high level to see if coverage could be gotten?

George, the current situation is just an historical accident. The NA procedure has been common in Europe for decades and is performed by a number of doctors over there. Those doctors seem to be mainly rheumatologists, whereas over here Dupuytren's is routinely referred to hand surgeons. The two groups simply had little contact - and there's the language barrier. In recent years news of the procedure began to circulate over here via the internet (i.e. this message board), finally coming to the attention of one surgeon who saw the procedure as a viable and profitable alternative to what he'd been doing. Dr. Eaton seems to be a personable and outgoing sort who will no doubt spread this knowledege within the surgical community. So stay tuned, NA is coming soon to a city near you.

MaryBeth,

In response to your question, yes, Dr. Eaton performed NA on my left hand in roughly the same location as two previous surgeries. The cord that he worked on had formed just at the edge of the region of two prior surgeries, the last one done in 1999.

Dr. Eaton did mention that he was glad to see that the procedure worked well on a hand that had prior DC surgery. I gather from his comment, that this may have been a first for him.

Since I am 54 and have had DC for 12 years, I either face future surgeries and all the problems that go along with it, or go the NA route for as long as possible.

From your previous posts your husband, Richard as I recall, is in the same situation as me. If he needs to have his DC treated again, I suggest you send Dr. Eaton photos of his hands and get his opinion.

Richard and I may be in the high recurrence minority and NA offers us some hope of some semblance of normal hand function. I shudder to think of ever having to undego another sugery, especially on my right hand which has three cords.

Your second question was; when did I had my French NA procedure. I had the procedure done in May 2003 and I felt is was successful. I could have waited longer to have it done again, but my wife had a conference in FL and so I decide to make the trip with her since the cords had progessed to a point that they were starting to cause me problems. What I didn't count on was my HMO denying payment. I have since submitted an appeal and will post on its progress.

I have no illusion that NA will be a one time cure for me. Since my situation is aggressive and has recurred after both surgeries(LH) and 5 collagenase injections(RH) and NA(RH&LH), I expect it to recur.

The real advantage of the NA procedure, as you probably know, is that it doesn't do damage to your hands the way surgery does. Even if I have to have it done every few years(hopefully not every year!), I will most likely do so. If I had surgery each time after DC recurred, I most likely would have crippled hands by now.

I had NA by Dr.Eaton today. My pinkie finger was at 80 degrees contracture,which happened in a short span of 8 months. The nicest doctor I have ever encountered. He was only able to get about 50% less contracture today. I will go back in about 3 months to try and get somemore bands "snapped".