Martin, in your post you mentioned "A fasciectomy, on the other hand, removes the deseased material, nodules and all".
Now, I am a layman myself, but I read somewhere (don't remember where at the moment) that when one has DP, not only the visually detectable tissue damage is diseased, but biogically, the DP is present latently in the rest of the hand.
If and when I come across the source of that information, I will surely post it here.
On the aponevrotomy: clearly this doesn't have sense if no contracture is present.
A note to Kay : I also have pits and nodules in my left hand, and those bother me 'some' ( not sure if I can call it pain ). I will try to avoid surgery as long as possible, maybe even longer :).

Hi Gary,
My surgeon describes himself as an 'aesthetic plastic surgeon', he is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and has done a lot of hand reconstruction work. As mentioned previously, I am very pleased with the result, after 2 months my palm is completely flat and that scars are hardly noticable, just need to work on my fingures. I did have a fasciectomy with zig-zags starting at the base of the fingers.
Martin

If and when my DC gets to the AV stage, this is what i plan on doing, unless the needle becomes available in Montreal.

I have DC in my right pinky. It appeared approximately 7 years ago after a bike accident. The initial dx was a ganglion cyst and I watched it grow for 3 years. When it became large I decided for an operation that would remove the cyst. During the surgerty the surgeon remarked it was not a ganglion cyst. It was later diagnosed as DC. After the operation, which was no big deal and it healed after two weeks, the finger was flat. It came back within the first year and has grown so that the finger is now at about 45 degrees. In all honesty it does not bother me except sometimes to shake someones hand. I do nothing, and I mean nothing, special for the finger. I weightlift 4 to 5 times a week and take no special precautions. Given the degree of contracture my hand surgeon recommended that I have the surgery. He said I had a PIP contracture and there did not seem to be much cord, if at all, in the palm and perhaps not much cutting of the palm was necessary . [Note that in my first surgery the only cut was made just below the first joint on my right pinky so the recoup was minimal]. However he is telling me that the recoup period now may be 5 to 6 weeks. It is getting near ski season and quite frankly I do not want to take that amount of time out of my life and risk a surgical procedure. I could just sit it out but the contracture is only going to get worse and now is the best time to take care of it. I am strongly thinking about the needle in Paris. The fact that it is short term is not troublesome to me because I believe there is a great likelihood the DC will return. My surgeon is skilled but nonetheless this is surgery. My concern with the needle is whether it will work with my DC. Mine is really a PIP contacture. I have a big node in two places on my left pinky with nothing in the palm.

By the way, I was accepted into the Stony Brook trials but he delays are interminable and there has been very littel communication. I also believe that the procedure is really just a chemical needle. As it was explained to me the chemical just dissolved the cord in one location. I do not see the difference betweent the two procedures.

One other question, has anyone heard of any complications with the needle. Any horror stories that one should be aware of .

I would appreciate any info or insights. I need to schedule the surgery or go to Europe soon.


Thanks for any help.

Tim

Wow! What a great success story, inspirational, too. So there is more than one doctor in Paris that does NA.