Scott,
Randy is right, most of the controversy on the site
is with one poster, not all. Check your email and post if
you don't receive it.

diathesis - trademark Gary/Sean word

I am now thinking that years of weight lifting may have caused my DC. Not that I am a gym freak, but I have been known to pump iron over a period of several years. I never wore gloves. Now I am thinking that the resistance compression from using Nautilus, free weights, whatever, may have caused the problem or contributed to it. Nevertheless, I still think I had a disposition to it anyway.

I developed my first nodule at the age of thirteen after a glass cut to my right hand. My parents both have Dupuytren's contracture,and I am of Irish, English, Polish, and Ukranian descent. I am female. The nodule developed the typical cordlike pattern of DC at the age of thirty three. I am a chiropractor, and suffered the gradual contracture and compromise to my ability to effectively use my hand in practice. By the time I opted for surgery, I was in about a 45 degree flexion of the small digit on my right hand. I found a reputable hand surgeon, and he performed the surgery at about the age of thirty seven. I regained full extension of the digit within two weeks of surgery, as I was regimented in doing physical therapy on the hand to regain the most in range of motion. On my three week recheck, I came in to show the doctor what was a new nodule in my palm of the right hand (surgical side) at the second digit. I was not very happy about it, and he told me that flexion does not usually occur in the second digit and to "give it no credence". Since that time, the corded band has developed, but with little or no flexion deformity in that digit. I am forty three years old. In the past year I have developed a nodule in my left hand at the second digit.

I am interested in what is known for conservative treatment for DC, current research, and any options for treatment other than surgery.

As a side note, my father had a nodule on one hand, and experienced a fall some years later, landing on the nodule in hand extension. He noted significant improvement in the DC in the hand.
My mother had surgery some years ago, and also experienced DC development post surgically.

The more informed we can be, the better.

Thanks for the informative post. Hopefully someday, this truly progressive treatment will be offered in the US.

I'm not sure who you are referring to as the 'pusher-man' but I suspect you maybe referring to the Gary/Sean poster.