by AceMedEd

Teach card · keep it in your scrub pocket

Dupuytren's disease

Ask during the case

  1. Before incision, with the hand on the table: "Which cord is causing this PIP contracture, and if it's a spiral cord, where do you expect the digital nerve to be?"
  2. During the palmar dissection: "Which normal bands became this cord, and which ligament in the finger is usually spared?"
  3. With the cords excised, before the tourniquet comes down: "If the PIP still won't fully straighten, what else could be holding it, and how will we check the nerves and perfusion?"

Point at: the digital nerve where it emerges from under the cord at the base of the finger, then the cord's path around it.

End of day: "Redraw the cords on the hand and the spiral cord on the finger slice for me." Two minutes each, no notes.

Where this kit and your technique differ, yours wins.

Send this to your students

The night before. They prep alone, redraw at turnover, and get a cold check tomorrow morning. They won't see these questions.

Open the student page

Reviewed by Mehdi “AC” Talle, D.O., November 2026. Sources: Netter, Gray's Anatomy and Hoppenfeld's surgical exposures. Teaching schematic, not to scale; anatomy and technique vary. Management and indications are left to you on purpose.