I had surgery on one hand about a year and a half ago.

Don't be depressed by the way your hand looks today. Full recovery takes a year - they told me that right up front, and they were right.

My surgery was reasonably successfull and I got back darn near 100% of normal motion. The affected fingers are still a bit stiff and probably always will be, but it's a good tradeoff.

The swelling will subside, steadily but very gradually. Do those exercises! They make a big difference in the outcome.

I know about the needle procedure, but what I haven't seen are the statistics for recurrence. The surgeon told me that it was very important to remove all the bad tissue to prevent recurrence.

Please post a message if you decide to try the needle procedure. I have to suspect that the rate of recurrence is very high. On the other hand, it might be safely repeatable as often as necessary, without the side effects and long recovery period of surgery. The problem is, the needle procedure seems to be done only by one doctor, in France. The obvious question is, why?

Thanks for that information. It looks like we'll have more options in the future.

I had surgery for a contracture in my right palm that was pulling in the 3rd and 4th fingers - it was getting fairly advanced - and to remove a knuckle pad on the 2nd finger of the same hand.

Both hands are functioning ok right now, but I have some other spots where contractures have begun: PIP joints of 1st and 4th fingers of left hand, base of thumb on right hand. I also have knuckle pads on the 3rd and 4th fingers of the right hand (the fingers that were pulled in by the contracture). These are small problems and aren't causing me any difficulty, but I have to keep stretching the affected fingers to maintain range of motion.

I also have a small lump in the arch of my left foot, and this worries me the most because I've read that it can become quite disabling.

It all depends on how the condition progresses, which seems to be unpredictable. You might be interested to know that the first sign for me was a large knuckle pad on the 1st finger, right hand - which went away after a few years. My mother claims she had a lump in her palm, just like mine, which also disappeared in time. I've heard similar stories, although my surgeon and therapist seemed surprised when I told them mine.

How about you?

My GP recognized the contracture as DC, although he had to look up the name. To be fair, it's considered a "rare" disease by some criteria. He referred me to a hand surgeon who told me a little about it, but most of what I know I learned from various Web sites.

A knuckle pad is just a hard lump on the top of a knuckle. They are commonly associated with DC. They're ugly, but seem to be harmless.

From what I've read, DC is strongly hereditary, but I don't have enough living relatives to recontstruct the history in my family.

The nodule on the foot is known as "plantar fibromatosis" or Ledderhose disease. If if gets large enough and/or becomes painful, it can be a real disablilty, but I can't find any statistics on how likely this is. The rate and speed of recurrence after surgery is apparently very high.

The collagenase injection treatment seems really encouraging. I know Biospecifics has it somewhere in the clinical trial and approval process but there hasn't been any news for quite a while. Does your surgeon know about it, and if so does he have any comment?

Hope you can help!

I’m new to the Dupuytren's Forum, but not to Dupuytren's that showed up about 10 years ago. Had surgery on my left hand 2 years ago but Dupuytren's is now back in the L hand worse than ever. So I know from experience surgery is only a stopgap.

I know about the French Needle so I am very interested in info about non-surgical cures. Question:

1) Are there any legit non-surgical cures? Who and where?
2) Is the SUNY Stony Brook cure near going public? Any info on the status?
3) Are there any doctors (or anyone else) doing injections? Who and where?

Please help with any info you have. I don’t want any more surgery!

Thanks.