Hello.
I’m new to the forum.
I am living in Portugal and would like to ask whether one of you knows if there are any RT experts here? I just found a post from 2017 where there weren’t any experts mentioned, but hope this has changed in the meantime. 🫣
I had to undergo hand surgery in August of this year and apparently this kicked-off Dupuytren for me. At the moment it’s just nodules, but they are popping up rather fast. No contractions though, maybe one or two little strands starting to form, but I guess this is still early stage.
My hand surgeon confirmed the Dupuytren condition and said I should wait until I have a contraction of a finger and then we would do surgery or PNF (the “needle option, sorry, don’t know the proper word in English).
However, I have read here that RT might be able to stop or delay the further development. So I was wondering if there are any RT experts in Portugal that I could talk to.
Thank you. 🙏🏻

Hi SpanishBuddha -
Thank you very much for your reply and the link. I will gladly have a look.

In the meantime I also found one address at the Algarve of a clinic that states that they do "low-dose radiation therapy for benign pathologies such as early stages of Morbus Dupuytren and Ledderhose". See link.

https://www.jcs.pt/en/medical-specialiti...ncer-treatments

For now my plan is to continue to monitor the development until January. Then it's 3 months. And then I will speak to the clinic here in Faro to check about their experience with DD. Visiting Prof. Seegenschmiedt might be a really good alternative and I will definitely be looking into this as well.

Thank you again for your support. I hope you are doing fine.

All the best,
Larissa

Hi Larissa

It's difficult to answer this objectively. Itching is one symptom the condition is 'active' , in my own experience I also had soreness when pressing on developing nodules, and slight pulling under the skin. If the nodules are recent as far as you know, you could plan for RT in say the next 3 months and keep a close watch to see which way it goes. It might go quiet or show signs that it's continuing to develop with other symptoms. Usually, for most, progression is slow, and this sounds like the case for you. Set up the appointment perhaps and decide closer to the date according to developments or changes? I suspect you will know one way or the other.

Best wishes SB

Thank you both for your feedback. 🙏🏻

I am already "tracking" the development with pictures. And as I see a continuing development - don't know wether that might be triggered by my using my motorbike again every day now in the summer...

But the fact of it being seemingly active made me want to inquire more about RT. I was in touch with Prof. Seegenschmiedt in January, but after an initial feedback from him I couldn't get in touch with him anymore. I hope he is doing well and just has so much other work to do.

This week I went to see an RO here in Faro, but unfortunately, they don't have much experience with Dupuytren so far. I also contacted Dr. Rivas in Spain, whom spanishbuddha already mentioned. I just want to make sure that I don't miss the right point in time for RT, as I know from my hand surgery (undiagnosed scaphoid fracture) how much that affects the hand plus it can trigger another push of the disease - in my case it was the kick-off to it... So I would definitely, want to go for RT first.

I am not on FB anymore so I won't have access to the DART group. Do you happen to know of any website that also provides this information or where I could find information from Dr. Schwarz?🙏🏻

Thank you again for your reply and all the best to both of you. 🍀

Hi again Larissa

I think that Dr Shwarz mentioned above works from Texas, so may not be helpful for you; perhaps Greenytx will confirm. The Essen clinic also seems to have (on DART) declined recent requests for treatment, possibly because of Dr Seegenschmiedt absence. Dr Rivas in Spain and the clinic there has good reviews and seems your closest.

Best wishes SB