Jerry,

Four years is great! I hope I can get that long before I face NA again. Your case is a good one to help us know long term expectations from NA. Short timers seem to have about six months or less. The rest of us might hope for four years like you.

Some cases seem to come back fast. Other cases seem to last a while. I think only CHS should do this. Only data from NA done by CHS should be used. The top CHs who does NA, Dr. Eaton, has not been at this long enough to have much data on long term expectations of NA. He will in a few years.

Rev Rhum Ed Fr. 1993 Nov 30;60(11):808-13.

Non-surgical treatment of Dupuytren disease using needle fasciotomy

[Article in French]

Badois FJ, Lermusiaux JL, Masse C, Kuntz D.

Centre Viggo Petersen, Hopital Lariboisiere, Paris.

Short-term and five-year outcomes after nonsurgical treatment of Dupuytren's contracture by needle fasciotomy were studied. Among the 138 patients who were evaluated, 90 (123 hands) were seen five years after the procedure. Outcome was excellent or good in 81% of cases in the short term and 69% of cases after 5 years. Adverse events included skin breaks (20 hands, 16% of cases), digital dysesthesia due to nerve damage (3 patients, 2% of cases), and local infection (3 patients, 2% of cases). Five-year recurrence rate was 50.4%. These findings demonstrate the value of needle fasciotomy especially in the early stages of Dupuytren's disease.

So, after 5 years about half of the patients who had a needle fasciotomy were still good to go. A five-year recurrence rate of 50.4% is excellent. I am hoping for just three years. Five years is almost too much to hope for.

From what I have seen 3.2 years sounds reasonable. Five years would be just fine with me though.

It should noted that the recurrence rate for traditional surgery is also over 50%. One survey shows an overall complication rate of 19% for OS. See www.dupuytren-online.info/10701.html