Can a person get Dupuytrens in the feet?

Hi Dr. Herazy. Can a person get dupuytrens in the feet? I’ve already had surgery on both hands, but I also have 5 or 6 nodules in both feet. Any information would be appreciated.
Thank You.

Greetings,

Although you cannot actually develop Dupuytrens in the feet, I know what you mean.   The answer to your question is that there is indeed a condition of the soles of the feet that resembles Dupuytren’s contracture.  In this foot problem excessive an fibrous tissue reaction occurs with nodule formation.  It resembles the contracted and fibrous tissue of Dupuytren’s contracture, with painful nodules, lumps and contracture formation on the bottom of the feet.  In this sense, Dupuytrens in the feet is called Ledderhose disease.

 You might also enjoy reading the post, Any suggestions for lady with a strong family association with Dupuytren contracture and Ledderhose disease?

I have had people who have treated their Ledderhose disease using the DCI treatment protocol and they have reported success.  You might consider this as an option before having foot surgery.  TRH

Are these several health problems and surgery related to Dupuytren’s contracture?

Doctor,

I was recently diagnosed with Dupuytrens on my right hand, VERY mild.  A year later, I had a pyogenic granuloma on my left second toe. It was removed a month ago. A few weeks after it was removed I noticed a lump on the arch of my foot seemingly attached to the tendon that attaches to my big toe. It does not hurt and is soft and moveable (for now). It is sounding like it may be Ledderhose disease since one in 4 people that have dupuytrens also gets Ledderhose? My right shoulder also suddenly started hurting and my doctor thought it was an injury from exercise but now I am wondering if the pyogenic granuloma, dupuytrens, growth on arch, shoulder pain are all related somehow signifying that something else is going on in my body. Most Doctors tend to treat each separate but I read where dupuytrens may signify some sort of liver or lung problem. I want to cure these things naturally and do NOT want the recommended radiation for the Ledderhose nor do I want to have this foot growth enlarge causing pain when walking. It does not hurt now. Do you know if these are all related or perhaps something else is going on in my body I should convince a doctor to pursue?

Thank you for your help.

 

Greetings,

Without getting into a lot of the details, pyogenic granulomas are small, red/pink to purple  bumps on the skin that bleed easily due to an abnormally high number of blood vessels they each contain.  The name pyogenic granuloma is misleading for two reasons:  It is not a true granuloma, but it is actually a capillary hemangioma.  And it is not infectious as the pyogenic part of the name would indicate since the origin is typically hormonal or traumatic.  What concerns me about your story is the fact that pyogenic granulomas are almost always found on the top half of the body (75% occur int he mouth) and most often in pregnant woman (they are sometimes called pregnancy granulomas) as well as in children or younger adults.  If this is not the case with you, I strongly suggest that you get a second opinion if there is any other irregularity about your health or extremities in general that arises to give you concern.

Many times I encounter people whose Dupuytren contracture starts after some type of trauma– not only trauma to the hand as you would naturally assume, but to trauma elsewhere in the body.  It is almost as though the trauma (like the trauma of surgery) somehow triggers a latent tendency for excessive fibrosis to occur elsewhere in the body as with Dupuytren’s contracture in the hand or Ledderhose disease in the foot.

Yes, Dupuytrens and Ledderhose often occur together in those who are genetically predisposed.

If you have to convince your doctor to purse a course of action or investigate your problem further, you have the wrong doctor.   Medical doctors by their training and personalities as a group tend to be “team players” and to not think outside of the box. Please.  I am not saying that MDs do not think; I am saying that they think within a narrow and pre-defined range of information that has been approved for them to use.  Anyone who is a medical doctor and prefers or needs to think independently, or to use innovation, will go into research.  Those MDs who are comfortable doing what they are told and following the narrow paradigm of how the AMA, FDA, hospital review boards tell them they MUST practice, will go into practice where they will work like everyone else in their profession. This is why when you go to four different MDs with a problem they will all want to do the same tests and they will want to know what the other MDs said about the problem, and will come to pretty much the same conclusion.  Organized medicine does not want and cannot afford to have MDs going out on their own and experimenting with patients; they must interpret test results as they are told to do by their peers and regulators; they must use drugs only as they are allowed and told to do; they must not operate in new and novel ways.  To put it another way, an MD will get into trouble if he or she does independent thinking and digs too deeply into the practice of medicine and the healing arts beyond what is given to him or her as the standards of practice.  This is why some MDs get so frustrated and discouraged with the practice of medicine; this is why a few will either eventually quit or go radical by engaging in “holistic health care” in which they declare themselves independent and rather radical in their approach to healthcare.    

Ask your average MD,Do you know if these different things – Dupuytren’s contracture, pyogenic granuloma, surgical removal of pyogenic granuloma, Ledderhose disease are all related or perhaps is there something else is going on in my body”?   By his or her education, training and personality characteristics he or she will not do much if any independent thinking, but will only say something like,  “I have not read anything like that.  And the research says that it is not possible.  So therefore I do not have any information for you about that.”  MDs work with information that has been given to them by others.  If an idea is not an approved idea they are not comfortable with it, and they are safest not using it and actually ridiculing it. This is the only safe answer that the average MD can use to practice medicine because they all know that if they think or act independently they can get into trouble. Heck, they have hospital committees watching what they do, how they test, how they diagnose, how they prescribe, how they operate, and what kind of results they get.  If they practice outside the standards of medicine they have a whole lotta explaining to do.  No one wants trouble,eh?

Since I am not an MD, but a retired Chiropractic Physician, who has thought independently all of my professional life, I will say that my experience says there is something to what you have observed.  It suggests to me a weakness or irregularity of the immune response perhaps related to a systemic allergic reaction.  My recommendation is that if you see larger health issues at play in your life that you should seek out a local holistic MD who will look at you with a different set of eyes and ears than the garden variety MD possesses.

In the meantime I also suggest that you read a bit more from the DCI website about the use of Alternative Medicine to support and enhance your natural ability to reverse the soft tissue changes of Dupuytren’s contracture.  Many people have slowed down, or reduced, or even eliminated their Dupuytrens this way when it is done as described here using an aggressive and faithful treatment approach of several months care.

Please let me know if I can do anything more to assist you.  TRH

Does Dupuytren’s contracture occur in feet?

Does Dupuytrens occur in feet, are they not
the same as hands. I have painful feet too like
my hands. Thanks.

 

Greetings,

If you already know you have Dupuytren’s contracture in your hands, it is possible to have a similar problem of fibrosis in the feet also.  When the problem of tissue fibrosis occurs in the hands it is called Dupuytren’s contracture.  When tissue fibrosis occurs in the feet it is called Ledderhose disease.  Both conditions can be painful. 

 

What is Ledderhose disease (Plantar Fibromatosis, Morbus Ledderhose)?

Ledderhose disease treatment ideas similar to Dupuytren and Peyronie treatment

Ledderhose disease is a problem of the sole of the foot at the arch, known by several different names: Ledderhose’s disease (LD), Morbus Ledderhose, and plantar fibroma.   This condition was first described in 1897 by the German surgeon Georg Ledderhose, for whom it is named.  Regardless of what it is called, the technical description of the actual tissue pathology is a plantar fibromatosis, just like Dupuytren’s contracture and Peyronie’s disease.  Ledderhose disease occurs less frequently than Dupuytren contracture, but usually in combination with it and less so does it appear with Peyronie’s disease.

Because there is similarity with many aspects of Ledderhose disease and Dupuytren contracture and Peyronie’s disease, anyone with plantar fibromatosis or Ledderhose disease who wishes to avoid surgery, and the probability of recurrence of the problem after surgery, should consider using Alternative Medicine methods to increase the ability of the body to eliminate these plantar nodules or lumps on the bottom of the feet.   Simply go to either the Dupuytren Contracture Institute or the Peyronie’s Disease Institute websites for natural treatment information.

Fibroma is a medical term that means a non-cancerous growth or tumor composed of fibrous or connective tissue elements.

Fibromatosis is a term that describes a non-cancerous soft tissue swelling or mass that contains a large group of well developed and distinct tissue cells known as fibroblasts and collagen protein, a tendency to aggressively infiltrate normal healthy tissue and to recur within the same local area.  The fibromatosis mass of Ledderhose disease usually takes the form of one or more nodules or lumps appearing the superficial layers of the tissue on the bottom of the foot near the highest point of the arch, but occasionally can also present as a cord – just as in Dupuytren contracture, but not as often.

Ledderhose disease characteristics

The Ledderhose nodules are usually painless; as they enlarge they can cause considerable pain when pressure or rubbing is applied as when walking or standing.  Size of these nodules range from 0.5 to 3.0 cm.  The skin overlying the Ledderhose nodules tend to be moved laterally with ease, at least during the early stages of the problem.  Over time, as the condition progresses and as the nodules enlarge they are able to apply pressure to blood vessels and nerves of the foot, causing even greater pain with less walking or standing.

Both feet are involved about 20%–50% of the time, and when involvement is bilateral the extent of involvement is seldom the same in both feet.

Because Ledderhose disease likely has the same or similar genetic cause as Dupuytren’s contracture, and is thought to also be triggered the same by trauma, liver and lung disease, diabetes or chronic alcohol consumption, and stressful work that involves that part of the body.  And just like Dupuytren contracture, Ledderhose disease predominantly appears primarily in men (10:1) during the fifth decade and beyond.  Of four people with Dupuytren contracture, one will also have Ledderhose disease. Unlike Dupuytren’s contracture which affects the hands and causes progressive flexion of the involved fingers toward the palm, Ledderhose disease seldom causes flexion deformity of the toes.  As another point of differentiation, the nodules of Ledderhose are larger than in Dupuytren contracture.   Just as with Dupuytren contracture, recurrence of the lesion of Ledderhose disease is high at 50-75% five years after surgery to remove the fibrous nodules and plantar aponeurosis thickened tissue.

The absence of contracture of the toes in Ledderhose disease is explained by the way the foot is typically used on an almost constant basis to walk, stand and climb stairs; all requiring frequent and repetitive stretching of the plantar (bottom of foot) soft tissue.

 

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.