Knuckle pads: Is there a topical treatment for these Garrods pads and my Dupuytren’s contracture?

I have DC and also knuckle pads or (Garrods pads) too…… Are there any topical treatments that can be useful in reducing the size of these knuckle pads?

Greetings,

Knuckle pads or Garrod’s pads  (or Garrod’s disease) are another of the excess fibrous tissue problems that affect people who have ancestry from northern Europe.  In the case of knuckle pads the problem appears as a clearly defined thickening and darkening of the tissue of the knuckles of one or both hands.  When a person develops this problem it usually affects the knuckles of all fingers, not just one or two.

They are located at the base of fingers or the first joint up from there at the  proximal interphalangeal or PIP joints of the hands.    They appear as a smooth, firm, slightly tender and slightly darker skin-colored elevation ranging anywhere from .25 to 1.5 inches in diameter. 

Knuckle pads or Garrod pads are commonly associated with Dupuytren contracture.  They are seen in about half of the cases of Dupuytren’s contracture; when they occur usually indicate a more severe form of Dupuytrens disease.

Over the years I have communicated with people who have noticed their knuckle pads reduce in size and tenderness after following a standard treatment protocol as outlined in the DCI website. The typical response when the knuckle pads begin to reduce their size, thickness and soreness is for this change to happen rather early, sometimes even before the Dupuytren cords or nodules begin to soften or reduce in size.

All DCI related treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture includes topical treatment consisting of Dusa-Sal DMSO, Super CP Serum and Unique-E vitamin E oil.  If you have some special concern about the appearance of your hands and wish to concentrate treatment to the knuckles, I cannot think of a reason that you could not apply additional DMSO, copper serum and vitamin E to these ares.

If you need further information about the Alternative Medicine treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture and knuckle pads, please let me know.  TRH 

Dupuytren contracture in another body area?

I have DC in booth hands. Now I have one too in my left foot is affected to bending in under the foot.  CAN DC OCCUR IN ANOTHER PLACE IN THE BODY? Sternum for instance?

Yours

Jane H,  Sweden

Greetings to you, Jane,

Sorry to hear of your condition appearing in another body area.

First thing to mention is that since you are Swedish (from a Scandinavian country), you are genetically predisposed to this small group of soft tissue problems in which a greater amount of collagen appears in a few different parts of the body.   The body areas and names of the conditions are:

1. Palm of hand – Dupuytren’s contracture
2. Knuckle pads – Garrod’s disease
3. Soles of the feet – Ledderhose disease
4. Shaft of the penis – Peyronie’s disease

There are no other areas or tissues of the body in which this excess fibrous material is deposited.

I became involved in working with Dupuytren contracture after it was repeatedly brought to my attention by men I was working with for their Peyronie’s disease that their Dupuytren contracture problems were responding to care for their penile problem.  This suggests the systemic nature of all these conditions, and how the holistic ideas for increasing the ability of the body improves the ability to heal and eliminate this material wherever it is located.