Dupuytren’s op – anyone had it done?

I have it in both hands, but it’s only causing me an issue in my right ( I’m right handed). After nearly 2 years waiting I’ve got a date for the op in early November.  I am really pleased about this, as it’s started to impact my life a fair bit. It’s not painful as such but permanently itchy and a little sore. The main issue is my little finger is bent to nearly 90° so anything which requires my hand to be flat is impossible. Gym stuff like press ups, pushing anything, even washing my face or drying the dishes is awkward.

Throttle control on my motorbike, gripping an MTB bar, lifting anything is a real pita. It catches on stuff all the time and even wearing gloves is becoming difficult. Now I know in the scheme of things this is a very trivial health issue, but I am really hoping for a good outcome.  What are people’s experiences of this procedure? Were you able to fully straighten a previously bent finger afterwards?

I also have a right little finger at 90′.

I’m 52 and have put the surgery off at the end of last year and again at the beginning of this year. My consultant is confident he can straighten it, as it’s genetic my consultants view is it’s taken 52 years to get to 90′ so once straightened it’ll take another 52 to return to this current presentation.

I met someone last week who had the operation, his returned and was then resolved by amputation which did little to bolster my confidence!!!

I also have many lumpy bits in my palm it’d be nice to loose.

I also have many lumpy bits in my palm it’d be nice to loose.

Same. Mines also hereditary. My 90 year old dad had his done about 25 years ago with quite a good result, but it needs doing again now. I’ve given my kids the good news! I’m 60. I only started to notice it about 10 years ago. It’s accelerated though. 4 years ago it was 45° and I got knocked back for the op then as it was below the threshold for intervention. I reckon another 3 or 4 years and it would be touching my palm! Amputation sounds drastic, but if there wasn’t a procedure to straighten it, or if it doesn’t work I would consider it.

My Father had that op about 30 years ago, luckily so far it hasn’t got to me, but instead my index finger is bending sideways so I’ve been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis instead.

Is surgery only option these days? I recall that there was some procedure involving injection which would weaken the growth on tendons and then finger would be forced to straighten, ripping away the extra growth. I am not sure but I recall that it is no longer done. Met a guy who had the surgery done and it mark of the Zorro on his palm – not a fun idea for riding bikes anytime soon after surgery.

Mine isn’t too badly bent, just tight and itchy and has been stable for quite few years now.

I had heard of the injections, but I wasn’t offered them. The surgeon seemed confident in my consultation that he’d be able to straighten it. Yeah, not expecting to be doing any mountain biking for a while afterwards!

Thanks to this thread I think I have figured out what the lumps I have had for a couple years are ?
Both hands and both the same place, no finger bending yet.
Worth seeing a doctor just yet?

Yep, that’s exactly how my left hand looks, and how my right looked initially. It’s a bit lumpier now, as well as the hooked little finger. A doctor probably won’t do much ATM apart from confirm you have Dupuytren’s and say to keep an eye on it. They won’t consider surgery on the NHS until your finger/s start contracting. In our area, it has to be bent more that 45° before they’ll consider surgery.

I also have this, sadly at 35 it’s got me very early. No one in my family have it, extensive research suggests it can be caused by certain wrist injuries which I’ve definitely had.

I saw the doc a few months back and he said as long as you can lay your palm flat on a surface then leave it. Mine doesn’t hurt, and riding is fine, it’s largely unnoticeable but suspect it’ll get worse. I’m setting aside some cash to get it sorted privately if I need to, as would prefer to be proactive rather than leaving it until it starts to bend.

Cheers all.
Now I look a bit closer the left finger will not move quite as far backwards as the others, but only a few degrees.
I’ll keep an eye on it.

Same here, mine appeared 2 years ago at 57. Still just a nodule below left ring finger. Intermittent pain and can still press it flat so doc says come back once it bends significantly.

I had my Rh little finger straightened about 2 years ago.

It was curling round to my palm.

It’s not exactly straight now but near enough not to be a problem anymore ?

They did a nerve block procedure which involved making my whole arm feel like a dead weight, so I never felt anything and it was a day job.

It was a day or so before I got any feeling back in my arm but the hand swelling took ages to go down. Like a couple of months.

I have it. Left hand. Which op are you getting? I had needle thing under local a few years ago (they jab the fibrous tissue with a hypodermic needle to weaken it then snap it). It made a big difference, but has returned now. Was quite unpleasant at the time, but the sorest bit was when the surgeon injected the local anaesthetic. Likely to have the full open hand surgery under general in a couple of months (had pre-op, just waiting for date now). Like you putting on gloves is a pain, especially for the motorbike. Doing cut and paste on a keyboard is a pain too as I can’t to control c and v any more! In 45 so quite young too. As I understand it, best to get it done before you’ve had finger bent for too long as you can permanently lose mobility. Bill Nighy has it too apparent.

Edit – just looked it up and I had Needle fasciotomy last time.

I also have this, sadly at 35 it’s got me very early.

Mine appeared in my mid 20s in both hands! I’m now nearly 40 and I can still force my hands to lay flat. The op isn’t that successful which is why the NHS stopped offering it as standard, but my take on it is don’t worry till it becomes bothersome.

No-one in my family has it, but the most recent research suggests a genetic link to Neandertals 😉

I’ve had two ops on my left hand when my little finger was bent more than 90 degrees.

The first was a partial fasciotomy where they go in with a needle and try to break some of the growth.  It made no improvement whatsoever and I ended up with an infection and was hospitalised with it.

The second time I went private as the NHS weren’t doing anything about it during covid. I had a full fasciotomy done under general anaesthetic.  They removed the affected skin and growth and grafted on some skin from my upper arm.  This made a massive difference. My finger doesn’t align with the others but is not far off so I can use it. I have feeling in the finger tip but not in the rest of it.

If you want any more info ping me a message.

Good luck!

Deleted due to formatting buggeration.

I wrote the following statement n UK Bouldering forum a year ago on their long-running Dupuytren’s thread. 12 months later all is still good.

I thought that the following info might be useful to some folks as I had the full fasciectomy last week.

I have had a Dupytrens contracture on my left hand for as long as I can remember, probably since my early 30s which was 20 years ago. It was pulling my ring finger in at the MCP joint and got to the point that I couldn’t hand jam as I couldn’t get my hand in the crack in the first place.

12 or 13 years ago I had the needle fasciotomy which was quick and easy with good results, but the contracture returned with a year or 2. As I had pretty much stopped climbing by then I just ignored it.

My wife is an upper limb orthopaedic anaesthetist, so she and her surgeon see hundreds of Dupytrens and kept a vague eye on it along with the occasional look at it from a friendly surgeon in social settings. Although it never bothered me in the slightest (cycling, photography, computer stuff), once it reached about 70-80° contracture they (wife / surgeon) decided it would be better to sort it before skin grafts were required.

I then saw the surgeon ‘officially’ through the NHS, got into the system and scheduled an autumn op last week. This involved turning up at the hospital at 7am, having a general anaesthetic and a block (could just have had a block, but I decided I had no wish to witness the carnage) and home by 1pm.

One long, zig-zag cut and 30 stitches later, my hand lays flat again and I have had zero pain from the op. I had a plaster splint for 5 days which was a bit tedious but now I just have some plasters and tubi-grip to protect it with a splint to wear at night. The stitches will dissolve in a couple of weeks at which point I need to massage it with moisturiser.

It’ll be another month before I can ride outside, but I will be on the turbo once the stitches have gone and it’s safe to get the wound wet. I’d imagine that it would be at least that long before climbing too, if not longer.

For those of you who have seen Pod’s UKC article, my contracture was considerably worse than his, and the surgeons cut longer (albeit I only had one contracture).

Early days, but seems successful so far.

I have it. Left hand. Which op are you getting?

The full zig, zag incision cut away the scar tissue and nodules one.  Not sure what it’s called.  Not the needle fasciotomy.  Thanks bear-uk, Oblongbob, tartanscarf and tlr for your personal experiences of surgery and recovery. Very useful information.  On here and in my day to day life, I’m surprised how common this is.

If anyone is interested.  I’ll do a before and after. I have the pre-op next week and the procedure is scheduled for 8th November at RJAH Orthopaedic hospital in Oswestry.  I had an ACL reconstruction there 2 years ago and had superb treatment and aftercare so I’m optimistic.

Here is my right hand now.  Showing the bend in my little finger and the nodules of scar tissue in my palm.  They don’t actually show up too clearly in the photos, they’re more prominent irl.  The last picture is the palm of my left hand. The lumps are visible, aligned with my ring finger not my little finger as on my RH. There is no bending of the finger, yet.  The consultant said it will probably follow the right and also need doing at some stage in the future.

Left hand – 0ne for the future!

I see from those lines that you will have a successful operation ,meet a tall handsome stranger and go on many adventures( some involving a motorcycle) 😉 🙂

@fasthaggis You made me laugh, thanks!  Although in my head you now look and talk like Clinton Baptiste! 😉

Good luck blokeuptheroad. My mate had the op on both hands and it was a success and he is back to climbing hard again. My hands look lumpy like your left hand, but maybe a bit worse and there is also some ring pulley injury too which causes a bit of curve.

I’d cross my fingers for you @blokeuptheroad, but, well, you know…

May the force be with you. 😉

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/615ed22f1c339e06ec0d886c/4c72861e-a77f-4bf4-be4f-fc6c5e024de1/disciple_clint.gif

I’ve had the op done on my right pinky (privately). Took quite a lot out, and there’s still a slight bend, but nowhere near as bad as it was. And it’s not got worse since.

My left forefinger started to go (and this is one for @northentom and others in a similar position), and so I investigated, and got irradiated on both hands, about 4 years ago. https://www.dupuytrensuk.com/ Nothing has got worse since. Highly recommend it.

Still have to be careful cycling, or chopping wood, for long periods of time. And do occasionally wear driving gloves when long distance – very Alan Partridge. Oh – and had to get my wedding ring resized, due to swelling fingers. Very first world problem.

And remember, it’s not just the hands that go. Remember Ledderhose and Peyronie’s….

 And it’s not got worse since.

Thanks petec.  How long ago did you have the op?

Peyronie’s

😮  Jebus, Mary and the wee donkey!!!

@blokeuptheroad – operation was 6 years ago next month. Remember though I had the radiation after that, so that could also have stopped the progression.

I’ve also taken part in the RIDD trial https://ridd.octru.ox.ac.uk/ – using a drug to help dissolve the extra growth. Unfortunately I was on the placebo side, but it does work. Coming soon. Incidentally it was very painful; needle injected horizontally, and then wiggled about under the skin to spread the liquid.

Dunno when it’ll be available though https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/adalimumab-found-to-be-cost-effective-treatment-for-early-stage-dupuytrens-disease/

😮  Jebus, Mary and the wee donkey!!!

happy to help!