Anyone Else Climbing Hard With Dupuytren's?

following what im 99% sure was a lumbrical tear about 7 or 8 months ago (injured palm of hand badly after pulling a 2-finger underclinging pocket) i strained my pinky recently while open-handing a bad hold in an awkward position.

pain was coming + going up till a few days ago, when i noticed a small hard ball at the base of my pinky. almost feels like its "under" the a2 pulley...the pulley itself is sore, but the lump isnt tender at all, and i cant move it around at all - feels like its directly on the tendon.

my bloodline is 100% northern euro too, which makes me genetically predisposed, supposedly...trust im pretty OK with it, ill climb offwidths with a fist for the rest of my life if i have to, whatever.

im just wondering if anyone else here has been able to climb hard with this condition? is it something you just have to race against, and it just gets worse as time goes on? gotta admit the loss of power thing bugs me out a bit..

Talk to Mark Hudon. He posts on Mountain Project as Mark Hudon. Here is the SuperTopo thread about his Dupuytrens surgery.

supertopo.com/climbers-foru…

I just had it operated on in January. My little finger was pretty bent and it's not totally straight now just yet. I expect to be climbing as well as I ever have come June in Yosemite. So far, for me, the operation an recover has been a total non issue.

Before I had it cut, it wasn't hurting at all, it was just bent and inconvenient. It was rather odd dealing with it, getting it into cracks, but all in all, barely an issue.

I had it cut since I'm getting old and I need all the advantages I can get and that it was going to get worse, more and more bent as time went on. I'm in good shape now and have some goals for the next few years so I figured the time was right to get it fixed.

I have it on both hands, it's much worse on my left hand under the ring finger. My doc said not to get the surgery until it started "bothering" me. I have short bouts of pain occasionally, but they usually don't last too long.

My wife did a bunch of searching on the internet and one person extolled the use of vitamin E cream. So, I bought some (the kind with lots of vitamin E 30,000 gu)and I apply it religiously every morning to both palms. It might be the placebo effect, but I'm pretty sure that since I started using it 2 yrs ago, that it hasn't progressed much at all. Before that it seemed like it was getting noticeably worse every month. It's not getting better, just seems to be not getting worse. Good luck!

Hi, saw this post from 2013. how's your Dupuytren's? I have some new and updated info. Just reply and I can post it for you. Candace

I am also super interested!!

I have some scar tissue but other than that my finger is fine. 

Hi everyone, just got an email from this post so i thought i would post an update. Im just finishing an acupuncture program in Denver. I specialize in sport injury and particularly Dupuytrens since ive had it about 5 years now. Started classic knot in 5th digit on palm fascia. Slow moving had not restricted my teaching yoga, climbing, etc. i have worked consistently with acupuncture and estim and topicals of chinese medicine to keep it flexible. But nothing can be done about the eventual closing in, or the peanut shaped fascia or the overgrowth. Its genetic with a tendency to affect climbers and musicians, etc that stress their digits. Big boulderer community of young people with dupuytrens in UK have a blog as well. Ive done alot of western med research and eventually found a hand specialist, in bend oregon who is all about non scalpel surgery. In the last 10 years or less an enzyme called Ziaflex costs about $4k per vial is being used. The process did in May. flew in to portland, drove to bend, into doctors office. In office he numbed the hand, injected the enzyme very carefully as a miss could cause tendon rupture. Wrap it up, into a hotel 4 hours later burning hell when it thawed, and the flesh eating bacteria enzyme doing its job. Back in the morning, numb again, bend, twist, tear the adhesions, wrap and back to denver. One week wait to climbing, howevermy little finger split and it took another week to heal.  I wore a bike glove to add,padding to the tender palm. I notice weakness since i am missing the extra thick cords that helped me climb 12s, but i lead an 11c the other day and working 12s. The palm is completely open but pinky didnt release. They think some of the cord got inside my knuckle. So another visit-in the future.   Feel free to send me an email anytime. Candace

I got mine cut a few years ago. 8 weeks healing and now it’s fine. I tried acupuncture, steroid therapy and bee sting therapy. Steroids and bee stings worked for a weeks but it kept coming back.

Find a surgeon who has done lots of them.
Mal

Hey all, just curious to see where everyone is at with this.  

I've had a Dupuytrens for roughly ten years in my left hand, but since starting to climb a few years ago it's gotten worse, especially in the past year and to make things better I now have one forming in my right hand.  Neither are causing a true contracture yet, but my left hand will only open up 85% of what my right will and is tight, and quite painful while doing poses such as down dog in yoga that require you to spread weight out throughout the hand.  I'm slightly worries as the actual lump in my left hand has more than doubled in size in the past year. 

I currently have one (maybe 2) dupytren’s nodules in my right palm. I am currently in the process of having a series of triamcinolone injections into the main nodule to try to soften it and prevent further progression.  

I had a similar nodule about 1.5 years ago that I had treated in the same way and it was completely resolved.

I would recommend investigating the treatment protocol developed by Dr Lynn Ketchum who has been working on this issue for over 20 years and has had success with delaying or improving early nodules and is a proponent of early intervention to prevent the disease from progressing to contracture stage.

If anyone is interested I can provide links to papers covering the subject area and protocols. I corresponded directly with Dr Ketchum regarding the treatment prior to finding a local surgeon willing to do the injections.

I climb at least a couple of times a week and am usually able to be back on rock (or plastic) 2 days after an injection without discomfort. It’s a minimally invasive procedure and I feel that it’s worth a go especially prior to full surgical intervention.

I've had good luck for over twenty years with keeping it from getting disabling by taping my hand so that the tape covers the palm. I do this climbing and weight lifting and this morning while shoveling snow. I've seen two hand surgeons over the years and both said keep taping. 

From an older (2004) study, but definitely not reassuring...
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/39/9/639

"Climbers with Dupuytren’s disease had significantly higher climbing intensity scores than those without, suggesting that the more dedicated and regular climbers are more susceptible to developing the disease. The higher prevalence of Dupuytren’s disease with an increasing climbing intensity score may reflect that the climbing experience increases with age and that these climbers are more likely to have developed Dupuytren’s disease simply because of age. There is, however, no positive correlation between climber age and climbing intensity score."

​This link works​​​

Mark E Dixon wrote: This link works

Thanks. Not sure what happened there.

Thank for the citation, will look at it today.

Would you please send the links? Definitely interested.

Dan L wrote: I currently have one (maybe 2) dupytren’s nodules in my right palm. I am currently in the process of having a series of triamcinolone injections into the main nodule to try to soften it and prevent further progression.  

I had a similar nodule about 1.5 years ago that I had treated in the same way and it was completely resolved.

I would recommend investigating the treatment protocol developed by Dr Lynn Ketchum who has been working on this issue for over 20 years and has had success with delaying or improving early nodules and is a proponent of early intervention to prevent the disease from progressing to contracture stage.

If anyone is interested I can provide links to papers covering the subject area and protocols. I corresponded directly with Dr Ketchum regarding the treatment prior to finding a local surgeon willing to do the injections.

I climb at least a couple of times a week and am usually able to be back on rock (or plastic) 2 days after an injection without discomfort. It’s a minimally invasive procedure and I feel that it’s worth a go especially prior to full surgical intervention.

Hi folks, 

I just recently developed dupuytren's beneath my left pinky. No actual bend in the finger yet, but I am 24 so it has plenty of time to progress. In addition to climbing I also play an instrument and cross country ski so it makes sense why it developed so early for me. 

I haven't climbed much at all in the last year, and I just went back for the first time recently. The affected tendon was very agitated after less than an hour of climbing. The pain wasn't bad enough to stop me from climbing necessarily, but obviously with tendons pushing through the pain isn't always the way to go. Has anyone experienced pain during/after climbing as a result of the contracture, and if so did pushing through it make things worse over time? What treatments (other than surgery, too early for that for me) have people tried that they liked other than the ones already mentioned, if any? 

It sounds like a lot of folks seem to be more bothered by the finger bending rather than actual pain, so I guess that is either reassuring for me or disheartening depending on how I look at it! 

a lot of folks seem to be more bothered by the finger bending rather than actual pain 

Interesting to read others' experience. At some point in the past few years I noticed funky knotting in the palm of my dominant hand, in the axis running to my pinky finger. More recently (past six to twelve months perhaps), I found that I cannot flatten that hand perfectly -- as I might want it to flatten while, say, doing a push-up -- as the pinky won't collapse. [Its counterpart on my non-dominant hand is fine, however.]

There's no pain or discomfort, just the minor inconvenience of not being able to flatten the pinky. My primary care physician says that if it bothers me I could have surgery done by a specialist. But I'm holding off until it becomes noticeably problematic. It's encouraging to read here that others have had the surgery with satisfactory results.

I  posted in the injury thread, I heard a pop bouldering in Hueco long ago and have had this condition for 30 years.  Never had any surgery, lots of sleep, supplements and (nostly) clean living.  I'm 60 and still bouldering pretty hard for an old guy.  Dont be discouraged.

Ward Smith wrote:

I  posted in the injury thread, I heard a pop bouldering in Hueco long ago and have had this condition for 30 years.  Never had any surgery, lots of sleep, supplements and (nostly) clean living.  I'm 60 and still bouldering pretty hard for an old guy.  Dont be discouraged.

What magic supplements do you speak of?