Article

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).

Langue : FRANCAIS