Hi Baroque,

I am not aware of pulished statistics about the long term/short term outcome of Ledderhose surgery. What is being posted by patients in forums might not be representative because mostly those with bad results tend to go into forums and post. The others just walk away ...

From what people in forums write the majority seems not to be in favour of surgery. Beyond what you can find here there are also two groups at Yahoo, the ledderhose_disease group and the plantarfibromatosis group. Here are a few comments that have recently been posted in those groups:

today (from an English patient): ... The important thing for me, though, was that he (the NHS doctor) was adamant that although there are some treatments that give temporary relief, there is no cure for LD, and he was also of the opinion that removal of any nodules, by any means led to the production of others, probably more quickly than they would’ve occurred.

today (Australian patient): ... My OP surgeon in Sydney, UK trained and acknowledged as the best Down
Under, said that 20 years ago he would have automatically intervened, but experience has convinced him and his colleagues that the so-called "Cure" is usually worse than the disease.

on 8 May 07 on cryosurgery: ... I am one of the patients that David Adams has written about that has had the cryosurgery. Is it a lifetime fix? I doubt it. Am I glad I did it? Quite! I had the first a year ago in March. ... The lumps are much smaller and softer and hurt less, though sometimes they still do hurt. ...

on 3 May 07 on classical surgery: I had surgery on both of my feet at different times of course and I was up and walking after the stitches were removed in 10 days. I don't regret removing the nodules at all. ...

Quite a range of opinions. I guess it also reflects that fact that patients react differently to therapies and that the outcome generally is difficult to predict, if not impossible. In general foot surgery might be more critical than hand surgery because the foot has to bear a lot of weight. I agree with the statements on http://www.dupuytren-online.info/ledderhose_disease.html

Wolfgang