I have been an occasional lurker at this forum. I have moderate DC and have seen hand surgeons in the past who recommended surgery when it progressed further. No mention of NA…… but disdain when I brought it up.

In December I went to Boise to visit my friend Chuck for a ski trip to Sun Valley. I was whining about my DC to Chuck and he remembered an article about DC from a local doc that he had just seen in a health publication. I called Dr. Kline and he wanted me to come in so he could see my hand before making any recommendations. I told him I was there on vacation and time was limited. He saw me at the end of the day.

My fingers, ring and pinky, weren't that far advanced, about 30 degrees. For those that aren’t familiar with Kline, he too has DC. His fingers were like mine. He, too, heard the same crap from numerous hand surgeons….surgery, surgery, surgery. NA is voodoo, THE FRENCH??? What do they know!! USA hand surgeons do not get exposed to NA so they poo-poo it. Kline went to France and had it done a couple years ago and his fingers are still straight. He has spent the last 2 years researching DC, hand anatomy, studying/training with the French, with Pess and others.

Dr. Kline made me feel totally comfortable with the procedure. The guy had it done to himself and swears by it as your first line of treatment. He was really confident about my hand because it hadn't progressed that far. I left feeling very assured.

I had my hand done 2 days later at his office. PIECE OFF CAKE. No kidding. I do not understand how Hand Surgeons can ‘slam’ this procedure. It really was a quick and simple and basically painless.

THANK YOU DAVE KLINE.

He is not actually in Boise. His office is at Holy Rosary Medical. Less than 50 minutes up the interstate just across the border into Ontario, Oregon.

Will my contractures come back? Statistically….probably. but so what, I can do this over and over again. The skiing is excellent and I’ll get my fingers fixed when done.

HIGHLY recommended.

Check out his web site www.dupuytrenscenter.com

His phone number is listed. He called me back and personally talked with me.

Carl H

Carl H, you don't happen to be Carl Hartshorn with whom I skiied at Lake Tahoe ages ago??

Wolfgang

Bill....$500 per finger

Randy,

When I gave you %!*# a few weeks back I hope you knew it was tongue in cheek. From the desert to the sea to all of Southern California, you are da' man!

Hi Randy,

I'm all for the surgeons making the big bucks but do hope the prices come down as time goes on so the average person can afford it. $500-$700/finger on a regular basis will become is very expensive for the average patient who needs regular NA treaments.

Example: Joe needing three fingers done every two years would translate to: $700 x 3fingers = $2,100/visit
$2,100 x 2.5 times = $5,250 over five years. That means it would cost the average DC patient approx $1,050/year to keep their fingers straight in treatment expensese alone.

Then there are the traveling expenses which must be taken into consideration...airfare/food/lodging/taxis/time off work will generally raise the total cost of an NA treatment between $1 - $2,000 *per visit*. Over a five year period that would be...$1,000-$2,000 x 2.5 = $2,500-$5,500 over the course of 5 years.

Add those two items together and you are looking at...
$5,200 for 2.5 treatments in 5 years
$2,500-$5,500 traveling expenses for 2.5 treatments
------------
$7,700- $10,700 over a 5 year period. Hmmm...that's getting up there.

In fact I wonder if the overall profit from surgery vs NA puts NA well ahead of surgery. No overhead, malpactice risk is greatly reduced, no long hours, little stress, everyone loves you when you are done, no 'on call', no large amount of patient follow-up, these items must be taken into consideration when doing the math for sure.

My hope is that when NA becomes less exclusive then the price will come down. After all...it really isn't surgery...and it's not so difficult to perform so it should be priced accordingly IMHO.

As for the decision to charge $500/finger, our doctors who are currently performing NA all work in the most expensive parts of the US to /worklive - just google a home price for those areas and I think you will find the cost of NA is reflective of that so hopefully the cost will come down as more doctors learn it. Supply and demand....:-)

Frances