Ed: I had Dr. Denkler perform NA in both of my hands exactly 1 month ago. Good results, two fully functional hands now, very happy with results. See also entries in Topic "Treatment by Dr. Denkler, 8-16-2005"; this forum. Wish you the best. Jey

Steve: I don't think this forum is the proper venue to discuss medical cost of these professionals, but I will say that I had 4 fingers and 1 thumb corrected as well as an associated bountonnier deformity corrected by NA, for considerable less. Jey

Yes, and we might even be so bold as to point out that Eaton's office is now approaching nearly $1,000,000 billed for NA, saving his patients and their insurance companies at least *five* times that amount in the process.

At some point information like this will eventually come under the purview of the all seeing eyes of Eaton's Fellows and the insurance companies obligated to pay the bills.

The cost of the procedure being done in Florida/New Jersey/California is definately a legitimate topic as their prices combined with airfare/hotel/food are high enough to equal a week-long European vacation.

HOWEVER, one must also realize that these doctors also live in very expensive areas of the country and those are the appropriate prices to charge for a) the surrounding population b)the amount of professional risk they are taking and c) the fact that they are faced with the reality that their clientel will be reduced as new doctors in other areas of the country/continent and eventually they will only be serving patients from their own area.

With the spread of NA practitioner in less affluent areas of the country will drop their fees and charge accrodingly but for now we must bite the bullet and support our NA practitioners with our words and our money or no one else will want to learn NA.

Frances

Michel:
I would suggest that the reason the populace in France "chooses" fasciectomy over NA is for the *exact* same reason that is still the case in the US. When a general practitioner sees a Dups case, he ships the patient off to his favorite CHS (or whatever they are in France). The hand surgeon then tells the patient with complete confidence and authority that he has but one option: Fasciectomy. Bingo. It's all over.

If anything, this should tell us how hard it is going to be to change the thinking *anywhere* regarding NA. Surgeons are trained to do surgery, so that's what they do. Fasciectomy has been the "only option" before most of us were born.

We do have one *huge* thing going for us the French don't. We have a highly respected, meticulous, and motivated CHS who has accepted the mission "dumped in his lap" (by us) to give NA the respect and attention it deserves. The irony is that if Eaton is successful, NA's acceptance by American CHS *may* eventually influence European hand surgeons. This would then do what Dr. Lermusiaux, as a non-hand surgeon, could not do in 40 years.