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Dupuytren's disease gained its eponym from the surgeon Baron Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835). However, the terms "Cline's contracture" and "Cooper's contracture," named after the two surgeons who proposed the treatment for the palmar contractures prior to Dupuytren, have also been used to describe the disease. In addition to the eponyms attributed to these three surgeons, a number of other appellations with interesting provenance exist for Dupuytren's disease including the "Curse of the MacCrimmons," "Celtic hand," "Viking's disease," and the "Hand of Benediction." These terms all have interesting provenance; however, contention exists with regard to the appropriateness of their coinage. Of these terms, the "Hand of Benediction" is based upon the oldest history, supposedly thought to be a result of an early Pope afflicted with Dupuytren's disease. This report suggests that Dupuytren's disease was recorded in history prior Christianity, the Vikings, as well as Dupuytren, Cline, and Cooper. Nearly 100 votive "Hand of Sabazios" artifacts from Antiquity appear to document Dupuytren's disease via sculpture. The report posits that Dupuytren's disease may have been represented by the "Hand of Sabazios," subsequently inspiring the "Hand of Benediction" and "Hand of God" that has permeated Christian art and culture for thousands of years.

Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835) was one of the most influential surgeons of the past. He described and popularized many conditions, including Dupuytren disease, which continues to carry his name. This article reviews Guillaume Dupuytren's life and his contributions in surgery., (Copyright © 2013 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Arthur Rainsford Mowlem, the junior of the 'big four' plastic surgeons, with Harold Delf Gillies, Thomas Pomfret Kilner and Archibald Hector McIndoe, came to prominence managing casualties of the Second World War. Rainsford Mowlem's ancestor was John Mowlem, the creator of the construction firm. Rainsford worked his passage to the United Kingdom from New Zealand in 1927 and did not return to New Zealand but retired at the age of 60 to enjoy 23 more years in Spain. He was the driving force between 1934 and 1939 at the Plastic Surgery Unit at St James's Hospital, Balham, and instigated the North London Plastic Surgery Unit at Hill End, St Albans, from 1939 to 1953 and subsequently developed the Unit after moving to Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex. After successfully hosting the International Meeting of Plastic Surgeons in London in 1959, he received recognition and honours in America but soon afterwards he surprised colleagues by retiring in 1962. Despite his significant contributions, he did not receive national honours but his life outside surgery was active including Trusteeship of the Mowlem Estate at Swanage in Dorset for 40 years.

Dupuytren's contracture of the hand is an extremely common deformity in middle aged and elderly men but it is rarely encountered in women. It usually involves the fifth and fourth fingers, less commonly the other two fingers, and never the thumb. There is a flexion deformity between the head of the metacarpal and the adjacent proximal phalanx and at the proximal interphalangeal joint. However, the distal interphalangeal joint is not affected. Indeed, in a severe case, the distal phalanx may actually be extended as it becomes progressively pressed into the palm of the hand. It is often bilateral and may affect the sole of the foot--although I have only had one old gentleman where his foot lesion troubled him enough for him to request surgical cure.

December 5, 1831, baron Guillaume Dupuytren presents at the surgical clinics of the Hotel-Dieu of Paris a report upon "an entirely new subject, with a new theory and a new method of treatment for a disease generally regarded as incurable". The patient presented had a permanent contraction of the ring finger and adjacent fingers of both hands, which appeared spontaneously without any injury or previous illness. Dupuytren explains he had the opportunity to dissect the hand of a man who died after having had a contraction of the fingers for many years. He defines the cause of the contraction to be the palmar fascia. He describes the operative treatment: aponeurotomy by a transverse incision. "Probably many surgeons (Cline 1808, Astley Cooper 1822) were aware of the palmar aponeurosis producing this condition before Dupuytren's lecture". "Thoroughness of his demonstration, the brilliance of the presentation and the supremacy of his surgical authority combined to link permanently the name of Dupuytren with this hand deformity" (J. Hueston).

Sir Astley Paston Cooper (1768-1841) was a successful and influential British surgeon during the early decades of the 19th century. He was a dedicated anatomist, an accomplished researcher, an inspiring teacher, and a skillful surgeon. Cooper published about the cause and treatment of Dupuytren's disease 10 years before Dupuytren. His contributions were widespread and substantially advanced the understanding and treatment of breast disease, vascular aneurysms, and abdominal wall hernias, along with orthopedic, otologic, and hand surgery. His contributions to surgical science have endured and are being used today., (Copyright © 2011 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The question of priority in describing 'Dupuytren's disease' as a result of permanent retraction of the palmar aponeurosis has been debated for a long time. This article tries to identify the pioneers who were involved in the research of the origin of permanent contracture of fingers and palm of the hand, and to find out to whom the priority of this affection should be attributed. Selected passages of several authors, as well as of Dupuytren's writings (mainly in italics and translated into English) are used to try and find the truth concerning the primary description of the disease.

Dupuytren's disease is a contracture of the hand derived from the retractile fibrosis of the palmar aponeurosis, that leads to a progressive deformity in flexion of fingers. It has been named from the French surgeon Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835), that described it in 1831. In this note it is sketched a short biography of Dupuytren and the main clinical features of the disease are described, underlining some particular aspects of therapy.

Concerning finger contracture as a result of a condition affecting the palmar fascia. A description of the illness. A surgical operation that is suitable for it.

The aggregated total of 385 cases of Dupuytren's disease arising after acute or specific injury, operation or infection of the forearm, wrist or hand between 1614 and 2003 are documented, including a personal series of 52 cases. The history of this relationship is recorded and the medico legal implications of the association are discussed.

Evidence of disease was analyzed from the skeletal remains of 11 individuals dating to the post-Medieval period from church cemetery of St. Ilija in Serbia. Two individuals showed pathological condition affecting joints. It was supposed that first individual had been suffering from Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease. It seems that this condition remained untreated, with extensive bone remodeling, and that the deformity of femoral head and acetabulum caused secondary degenerative joint disease at a relatively early age of this individual. Second case was related to the bony akylosis of the hand finger, probably caused by Dupuytren's disease. In addition, we discussed development of differential diagnosis in both pathological conditions.

The first author to suggest an origin and spread of Dupuytren's disease was Early who wrote in 1962, "If one postulates the condition as having arisen in one particular racial group (the Nordic for example) then the variable distribution in other parts of the world might be explained on the basis of migration from that group." Dupuytren's disease is currently called a Viking disease on the assumption that the disease was spread to Europe and the British Isles during the Viking Age of the 9th to the 13th centuries. From a literature search, it is proposed that Dupuytren's disease existed in Europe earlier than the Viking Age and originated much earlier in prehistory.

Dupuytren's disease may have originated among the Vikings of northern Europe. Possible association of the disease with the Scottish bagpipe-playing MacCrimmon clan and the Papal Sign of Benediction also are examined. The evolution of pathologic understanding and the advent of surgical treatment of the disease in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Europe and North America are reviewed in detail.

Dupuytren's disease and its treatment have always been a fascinating subject. The operation technique, Guillaume Dupuytren performed the 12th of June 1831, does not appear obsolete, even today more than 150 years later (1). Almost the same technique as described in the original text was used. Guillaume Dupuytren was, in his time, a surgeon of true genius.

Traumatic rupture of Dupuytren's contracture is rare. It has been reported only twice in recent times and only on four previous occasions over the last millenium. These cases are reported and the forces involved in rupturing Dupuytren's contracture are discussed.

During a lecture on clinical surgery that he gave at the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris in 1831, Guillaume Dupuytren established the nature of "Permanent retraction of the fingers", that has been designated Dupuytren's contracture since the end of the XIXth century. The nosological individualization of this soft tissue rheumatism is analyzed based on a review of Dupuytren's lectures and of writings by XIXth century practitioners; the other two conditions included in Dupuytren's diathesis, namely Ledderhose's contracture and Peyronie's disease, are also discussed.

Plater's description of Dupuytren's disease in 1614 is explained with regard to his understanding of the anatomy. The current view that Plater believed the disease to be caused by dislocation and shortening of the flexor tendons is based upon misinterpretation of the original Latin text. With the help of his anatomical studies, Plater had proven that subcutaneous ligamentous extensions of the palmar aponeurosis and not the flexor tendons were responsible for Dupuytren's disease. Felix Plater realised more than one hundred and fifty years before Cline, Cooper, and Dupuytren the palmar aponeurosis as the anatomical substrate of the disease.

This study identifies four miracle cures set in Orkney and Iceland in the 12th and 13th Centuries and recorded in the sagas of the earls of Orkney and the bishops of Iceland, in which the condition of the hand which was healed bears a resemblance to Dupuytren's disease. The possibility that one hand was cured by traumatic rupture of this condition and another treated by palmar fasciotomy is discussed.

In 1833 Dupuytren described what he referred to as an "affectation" of the palmar aponeurosis. This disorder continues to bear his name a century and a half later despite the fact that Dupuytren was not the first to describe it. The author contemplates the contributions of Felix Platter, Henry Cline, and Sir Astley Cooper in the management of this "maladie."

Guillaume Dupuytren's good fortune was the time of his birth. He was a product of revolutionary change in France, and without it he would never have become a surgeon. From south central France he came to Paris to become a surgeon and reached his goal, literally, "on a crust of bread". Dupuytren is remembered principally for the hand condition which bears his name; his other numerous and more-important contributions have been ignored. Never happy outside the operating room--or perhaps inside it either, due to his mania for perfection--this arrogant master surgeon constantly clashed with his colleagues, staff and the few friends he had. When he died at the age of 57 years, he had advanced surgery on many frontiers.