Measuring Dupuytren What’s the best way to measure Dupuytren disease impact? Finger angles? Dexterity performing hand-related activities? Subjective or self-reported surveys? It turns out that Dupuytren is difficult to pigeonhole. People often compensate for some loss of motion without being aware that they are. Unless the fingers are really bent, angle measurements don’t correlate with […]

The story depends on the storyteller. For nearly two centuries, the only narrators of the story of Dupuytren have been doctors and therapists. The public face of Dupuytren was limited either to what was easy to describe (measuring finger angles) or to technical details relevant to surgery. It was a narrow tunnel vision about what […]

Today Would Have Been Dupuytren’s Birthday Guillaume Dupuytren (10/5/1777 – 2/8/1835) was born on this day in Pierre-Buffières, France. He excelled in anatomic studies and was appointed assistant surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris at the age of 26. He rose to the position of head surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu and remained so until his […]

So much is known about Dupuytren; much more needs to be known. Dupuytren probably isn’t one single diagnosis or one single disease. It’s the end result of overlapping causes. It’s a late effect of many possible causes, the same way similar looking scars can be the late effects of different injuries – cuts, burns, blunt trauma and […]

May is here. Summer is coming! In many countries, Mother’s day is being celebrated this Sunday. It’s a meaningful milestone. Dupuytren Research Group is also marking milestones – on a variety of maps. International Dupuytren Data Bank Enrollment The IDDB is nearing the 3000 enrollee mark: as of today, we have 2996 enrollees. Here is […]

The December 2017 Sixty Second Survey on Dupuytren Triggers was the most data-packed survey to date. This survey focused on a simple-sounding question: is the onset of Dupuytren disease triggered by an external event such as injury, physical activity, medication, or emotional stress? Almost 40 percent of those taking the survey believed that some event […]

Compassion, Generosity, and Enlightened Self-Interest In this season of gratitude and self-reflection, it’s wonderful to have a simple way to help oneself and at the same time help others in the same situation. I have Dupuytren disease in my hand. I’ve learned that Dupuytren-related diseases run in my family, here and there: Dupuytren, Ledderhose, Peyronie, […]

Dupuytren Triggers Yes, that’s a picture of Roy Roger’s horse, Trigger. You might not have been expecting that. Dupuytren also shows up unexpectedly. People have normal hands, and then they don’t. Many feel the problem came out of nowhere. Others may recall some event happening around the same time as Dupuytren first appeared and conclude […]

Survey Results: Musicians with Dupuytren Nearly 200 musicians with Dupuytren took the Nov 2017 Dupuytren Research Group Survey on the impact of Dupuytren disease on playing a musical instrument. All those surveyed had Dupuytren disease. People were asked how bent their fingers were, whether or not they had previous Dupuytren treatment, the impact of Dupuytren […]