The potential of cryotherapy and Dupuytren's

Myofibroblasts are part of the normal tissue repair response to almost all injuries: cut, crush, burn, chemical injury, infectious gangrene, and others - with one exception: freeze injury. Freeze burns don't contract, possibly because only in freeze injury, the original collagen matrix scaffold is preserved, which may inhibit myofibroblast formation: http://www.dupuytrenfoundation.org/DupPDFs/1984_Ehrlich.pdf. This makes cryotherapy a potential treatment for Dupuytren's related nodules: it might just turn the process off. The problem is how to precisely control the extent of freeze injury: freeze both finger arteries, no more finger. The anatomy of foot involvement is different than the hand, and there is some experience with treating Dupuytren's half-brother, Ledderhose, with cryotherapy. It looks encouraging: http://www.dupuytrenfoundation.org/DupPDFs/2005_Goldstein.pdf.