shawn,

I don't see why NA & OS need be looked at as opposing opposites. OS has been around for a long time and isn't going away soon. NA is simply a newer approach to achieve similar results without major surgery. In all of medicine this is usually the course of action, from the safer more benign to the riskier more traumatic. You stop climbing the ladder to the more draconian when sufficient relief is achieved. If and when NA is ineffective, OS is the next step. I've hand them *both* and will never again submit to OS without *first* exhausting the benefits of NA. This is a no brainer.

Nuking of palms........No Clue.

Do NOT use Cocoa Butter on your hands. It promotes Collagen growth. The physician that prescribed the item is as many others; uninformed. In fact; the less you bother your hands, the better off they will be.

Please visit: http://www.wstagner.com click LINKS and do your homework.

Has anyone actually had success with NA AFTER several surgeries ? Or does it only help before any radical surgery ? Pat

I think when Shawn mentioned "nuking palms the New German Way" he referred to radiotherapy. But radiotherapy of Dupuytren uses low energy x-rays, nothing nuklear. No nuklear warfare.

The clue of radiotherapy seems to be that those x-rays mainly affect the collagen cells and not much of the rest of the hand. Research on the details of the mechanism is on-going. It would be amazing if this radiation would exclusively affect the collagen cells, but the collagen seems to be more sensible to radiation.

It looks like that radiotherapy is mainly used in Germany, therefore Shawn called it the New German Way (though it has been in practise for at least 20 years or so).

Just to emphasize the differences: radiotherapy works best in the initial stage of Dupuytren (small nodules/cords, no or very little contraction). NA and hand surgery are typically applied in later stages of Dupuytren.

In this thread Carol mentioned that excercising the hand helped to maintain the disease stable. In another thread dancing was reported as therapy against Ledderhose (so far the most attractive therapy!). On the other hand (to speak in Dupuytren terms ...) some publications claim that exercising is counter productive and makes the disease worse. Does anyone know of sound research on physical therapies?

Wolfgang

I just had surgery on my left hand including pinky finger 6 weeks ago.
It has been extremely painful for me. I know others have not had as many issues with pain after surgery.
My finger is still swollen--twice the normal size.
They removed my cast after 9 days. I began my hand exercises immediately after the cast was removed. The stitches broke and my incision just closed up yesterday. The doctor told me that it is more important to get the hand and finger moving--go ahead and break the stitches--the skin will heal eventually.
I am soaking my hand in warm/hot water and exercising it 4x aday, wearing a splint now 4 hours a day and going to physical therapy and learning more exercises twice a week for 6 weeks.
The recuperation process will take 6-8 months--that is what the doctor told me and now I can see why.
Also, I have new nodules on the hand that had surgery--on 2 fingers and in the palm. The doctor said--hopefully-they will go away in 6 months or so.
I wish I could give you better news but you might as well know what to expect. perhaps your surgery will be less severe.
Carol