But You Can Still Thumb Your Nose at People

摘要

Dupuytren's contracture continues to defy satisfactory explanation and curative treatment. It can be a curse if the disease presents a tight contracture of the palm and fingers. You can't get your wallet out of your pocket (old trick!), play the bagpipes, get your hand around a glass of Scotch, hold a golf club, or avoid putting your little finger in your eye when washing your face-sounds like a curse on the Scots. While it typically affects elderly men of northern European descent, it is not confined to them or to men. The Vikings have been blamed for spreading the disease and the pattern of inheritance suggests an autosomal dominance with varying degrees of penetrance. It also was blamed for curling the papal "hand of benediction."Baron Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835) was French and worked in Paris. In 1833, he was the first to fully describe the contracture but an eminent surgeon, Henry Cline, first introduced it to the medical literature in 1808.