Current Smoking Is Associated with Delayed Wound Healing But Not with Improvement of Contracture after the Open Palm Technique for Dupuytren’s Disease

Background: Some cases treated with open palm technique need relatively long wound healing time. This study aims to clarify whether the preoperative lifestyle-related diseases or factors are associated with surgical results after the open palm technique for Dupuytren’s contracture.

Methods: The study included 122 fingers of 84 hands of 84 consecutive male patients with Dupuytren’s contracture who were treated with McCash’s open palm technique at our hospital from 1980 to 2016. The average age of the patients was 68.0 years (range, 39–86). The follow-up period was at least 6 months (average, 36.3 months). Using multiple regression analysis, we investigated preoperative factors associated with surgical results. The factors examined were age, affected side, contracture of the little finger, number of contracted fingers, contracture of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint, Meyerding classification, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, alcohol intake, and smoking. Surgical results were judged at 6 months after surgery and wound healing time was evaluated.

Results: According to Tubiana’s criteria, there were 59 excellent hands (70.2%), 18 good hands (21.4%), 5 fair hands (6.0%), and 2 poor hands (2.4%) at the final physical examination after surgery. The average of the percentage of improvement in contracture was 86.1%. The average number of days needed until complete open wound closure was 22.9 days. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the significant preoperative factors associated with the percentage of improvement in contracture were multiple contracted fingers and involvement of PIP joint contracture, and that the factor associated with delayed wound healing was current smoking.

Conclusions: Multiple contracted fingers and involvement of PIP joint contracture are associated with insufficient improvement of joint contracture. Current smoking is associated with delayed wound healing, but not with improvement of joint contracture, after the open palm technique for Dupuytren’s disease in men.