I am curious if anyone has ver successfully had the lumps that appear in the palm in DD. They are just slighly painful, but elevated enough that they are kind of a nuisance. Have to be careful how I use my right hand to avoid much pressure on them.

Thanks.

Only two ways to remove lumps:
a) radiation therapy in the initial stage (you might be beyond that stage but it needs a doctor to diagnose that)
b) surgery, typically the last resort because it might have a variety of problematic side effects.
Have a look at the posts on this forum and at www.dupuytren-online.info

Wolfgang

Lumps, sometimes painful sometime not, are an unfortunate nuisance of Dups compared to actual contracture. They do see to act like "staging areas" before the disease moves into the fingers. However, they are not usually surgical removed as they cause no functional disablement.

Some believe that the surgery to remove them itself may cause sufficient trauma to cause more to grow. The percentage of individuals who have some Dups in the palm who eventually need work on their fingers is low. It depends on how fast they are growing. Nevertheless, I would avoid trauma to the hands. Let *other* people clap during a third encore.

Evan,

"Do these nodules *always* develop further and always lead to contracture?"

No. Not necessarily. From Eaton's site:

<<The younger the person is when they first develop Dupuytren's, the more likely they will need surgery, and the younger the patient is when surgery is needed, the greater the chance for recurrence. Overall, finger contractures develop in about one in 20 people with Dupuytren's disease>>

Read his site and learn: http://www.handcenter.org/newfile25.htm

No scietific answer, just my opinion: NA breaks the fibres of the cords that cause contracture. That may slow down further growth of those fibres but it will remove cords or nodules. Shrinking of the size of nodules or cords after a therapy might also be related to shrinking of the sourrounding tissue that is often swollen.

Collagenase will probably dissolve some part of the cord and radiotherapy might kill some of the cells. I doubt whether NA would do that. But it makes your finger straight. Good!

Wolfgang