Fifty years of Dupuytren's Patients Reviewed

One of the more puzzling things about Dupuytren's is the variation in demographic data. Taking away the variation in results from different surgeons doing different operations, one would expect a standard pattern of who is at risk, what conditions are associated. Not so. A review of nearly 3000 Dupuytren patients seen over 50 years at one institution found these trends in their group, some of which are at odds with earlier reports: nearly half of involvement was bilateral, right hand slightly more common than left when only one hand was affected; diabetes, alcoholism and smoking were only weak risk factors; more than one digit was involved in over half of the affected hands; men outnumbered women 7.6:1 and on the average developed Dupuytren's 10 years younger than women. There are other details which make it worth reading the full text, including surgical results and the effectiveness of external fixation to avoid amputation: http://www.dupuytrenfoundation.org/DupPDFs/2007_Loos_1033.pdf