Endeavours to advance postoperative techniques, with the possibility of improving outcomes and reducing costs, are very much to be welcomed. However, the premises upon which this study is founded could be regarded as questionable. It is certainly not my common experience after operating on Dupuytren's patients for some 30 years, or that of our nurses, that 'removing sutures can be difficult, uncomfortable and time-consuming'. Furthermore, the authors' chosen management of apparently leaving their patients splinted without either wound inspection or therapy for a 2 week period after surgery is unlikely to be seen as acceptable by many hand surgeons, but it does of course allow for the use of the sutures which they recommend but describe as delicate enough to 'rupture in children's limbs in 12-16 days'.
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