Dupuytren's contracture: an audit of the outcomes of surgery.

This multi-centre postal questionnaire study was conducted by the Audit Committee of the BSSH to assess the outcomes of surgery for Dupuytren's Contracture using subjective data provided by 1177 patients at a mean follow-up of 27 (SD 8) months after surgery. Surgery for Dupuytren's contracture achieved a high rate of full, or almost full, correction in 826 patients (75%) but had a high incidence of post-operative patient-reported complications of 46%. A higher complication rate was seen in those patients with worse initial deformities. The rate of contracture recurrence or persistence was 158 of 1037 (15%). The severity of contracture correlated with the final hand function measured using the PEM score. Recurrence was more common in patients with greater initial deformity. Recurrence was less common if good correction was achieved at surgery. The relevance and limitations of this data are discussed.