I agree that there is potential risk in using DMSO with another substance but it has been widely used by Dr. Stanley Jacobs for 4 decades and no harm has come to the patients treated at the medical center where he works and has done his research. DMSO has been shown to be very effective in reducing scar tissue that results from arthritis related inflammation of the joints and increasing mobility and reducing pain.

Risks come from using any of a variety of chemical contaminants as the DMSO is very effective in transporting agents through the cell walls. This would make it a good match for use with another substance, but the purity would be a concern and a lotion is going to have multiple ingredients. As for traveling through the blood stream and causing a problem in some other organ, this has not been shown to be a problem with the DMSO products in use, though the main added ingredient is urea.

Every treatment for Dupuytren's carries with it risks to consider and I have trouble seeing where this is any different.

Quote:

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... He knows I have researched this, and Santyl does no harm to healthy tissue -- the only thing that might have happened is nothing. ...
Dana

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Edited 07/02/09 22:21

I have Dupuytren's Contracture and have consulted my Doctor. He indicated the only way to correct it now is to have surgery. He mentioned a new injection of collagenase is being tested but not available yet. I prefer not to have surgery. Are there any clinics that are testing this procedure that I could volunteer? How far away is the approval of this injection? I have it in both hands and one hand is starting to develop it in the ring finger as well. Any help is appreciated.

I view Xiaflex as an alternative to NA or a fasciectomy for treating the effects of Dupuytren's, the contractures and nodules. There is no reason to think that Xiaflex is a treatment of the disease itself and therefore likely to halt or even slow the progression of Dupuytren's in individuals.

I suspect that the researchers wanted maximum effect and so over-treated their subjects hands by injecting the Xiaflex throughout the hand instead of using it to loosen the chords at key points in the contracture as is done with NA. The negative side effects may be due to the overzealous injection of the Xiaflex.

It is not at all unusual for medical practitioners to over proscribe medications and to overdose their patients. With such a tiny study group no doubt the people performing the injections decided to do a heavy dosage on everyone rather than 2 or more dosage levels as their would have an even less statistically relevant group for later analysis.

The only treatment that has shown to have any effect on the progression of Dupuytren's is X-ray treatment and it is most effective when done at the early stages. I had it performed on both my hands after receiving NA on them both. My left hand has progressed much further than my right hand and now 2 years later the progression of the Dupuytren's on my right hand has appeared to have halted (at least in terms of flexibility which is the same as it was after the NA) while by left hand is going back to where it was prior to the NA procedure.

My results may not be typical but it convinced me of the need for early treatment and treatment by someone experienced with Dupuytren's who could palpate the hands and make an accurate assessment of the areas that should be treated. For me it is also clear that both hands should be treated even if one is not showing outwardly visible signs of the disease.

Cancer risk from XRT to the fascia material of the hands is less of a concern than having X-rays of your mouth by your dentist every other year for decades. With your mouth the X-rays have a much greater chance of affecting organs than with exposure to hands or other extremities.

The collagenase treatment is truly experimental and does not have decades of use with thousands of patients as with XRT for Dupuytren's. The side effects are not being made available by the company manufacturing the substance or the medical people who have been conducting the trials. No news is probably bad news when such trials are conducting in the USA. The manufacturer needs to continue to raise money and would be eager to publish any results that put their product in a favorable light.

I doubt that any such treatment will be truly effective until it can accurately target the affected tissue and not enough is known about the mechanisms involved with the disease to know if even this is going to be a remedy or for what period of time before a relapse.

We in the USA are fortunate that at least the German government with its socialistic approach to medical care has funded the work of Dr. Seegenschmiedt and that socialist French doctors have pioneered the use of NA for Dupuytrens. Otherwise we would be completely dependent upon some blockbuster drug which is likely to be prohibitively expensive.