Dr. Herazy,

Why should I fool around with all these vitamins and DMSO on my hand if I can just have needle aponeurotomy and get quick results and be done with my problem?  Your ideas seem like a lot of work.

Thanks,

Victoria

Greetings Victoria,

Thank you for your very direct question.

Using the DCI treatment protocol can be work, but you should follow it anyway for a few good reasons.

1.  After having a needle aponeurotomy you are not necessarily “done” with your problem.  Needle aponeurotomy is not a cure for Dupuytren contracture, and after having your first one you could easily need another one – and perhaps another – in a just a short time; sometimes in as little as a year.  Dupuytren contracture is well known as a hand problem that recurs after correctional surgery, and the Dupuytren recurrence rate is the highest and fastest after needle aponeurotomy.

2.  Needle aponeurotomy is surgery, although it is a less complicated type of hand surgery.  Doctors who perform NA like to say it is a non-surgical treatment for Dupuytrens, but when you consider what is involved you will see it is indeed hand surgery.   A doctor must perform this procedure (your barber or butcher cannot do it), sterile technique must be used, cutting and laceration of internal tissue is done, bleeding takes place, bandages and post-surgical drugs are prescribed infection is possible – it is surgery.  The only thing missing is the scalpel, but the same kind of work is done with the tip of a hypodermic needle.   The selling of the idea of doing this kind of surgery is to make it seem like it is not surgery because all surgeries have complications and risks. Most thinking people will go out of their way to avoid the risks and complications of surgery.

3.  Many people have found that once they have their first hand surgery, their Dupuytren contracture is worse the second time it recurs (as they all eventually do) simply because of the scar tissue that develops after having any surgery.  It is my opinion it is a good idea to avoid getting on that surgical merry-go-round if it can be at all avoided.

4.  If you attempt to use natural Alternative Medicine as a Dupuytren treatment for a brief therapeutic trial to see how well your hand  responds, and you are not satisfied, you will still be able to have any kind of hand surgery that is appropriate for you. The opposite cannot be said:  Once you have any kind of surgery, there is no way to undo it.  Once you have been cut on, once scar tissue has developed, once your body has been surgically altered, there is no way to get back to normal.  Because surgery that is done to remove the scar tissue of past surgery often results in more scar tissue – and even less normal tissue – it is much more difficult and less effective to later try to use natural Alternative Medicine methods to reduce your Dupuytren contracture.

Let me know if I can help you in any way to avoid hand surgery and to return your hand to full use.   TRH