Treatment of Dupuytren's contracture. Long-term results after fasciotomy and fascial excision.

Of 359 hands treated surgically for Dupuytren's contracture, 135 were available for study after two years or more, often because of recurrence. Of the sixty-five hands treated by excision of the involved fascia (subtotal fasciectomy), 63 per cent had recurrences in the area operated on but only 15 per cent had sufficient deformity to warrant another operation. Of the forty-one hands treated by palmar fasciotomy, 43 per cent had recurrent deformities severe enough to warrant further surgical treatment. After palmar fasciotomy, improvement at the metacarpohalangeal joint persisted; but, as expected, the deformity at the proximal interphalangeal joint progressed just as it did in an untreated control group. The average postoperative period of disability was fifty-nine days after fasciectomy and twenty-one days after fasciotomy. Stiffness and hematoma occurred after fasciectomy but were not observed after fasciotomy. A digital nerve was severed during one fasciotomy and one fasciectomy. Excision of the involved fascia, therefore, gave the best long-term results but was associated with a higher incidence of postoperative complications.