Prevalence of Dupuytren Disease in The Netherlands HAND / PERIPHERAL NERVE

394 Dupuytren disease is a benign fibroproliferative disease of some of the palmar fascias of the hand. This disease causes the formation of nodules that can eventually progress into cords, giving rise to flexion contractures of the affected fingers. Etiologic risk factors previously described include smoking, alcohol consumption, manual work, hand trauma, diabetes mellitus, and epilepsy.1–4 However, the role of these factors is not fully elucidated, and evidence is at times contradictory. Observations from twin studies and family studies suggest that Dupuytren disease has a strong genetic component.5–7 Recently, in a genome-wide association study, nine genes were identified to be associated with Dupuytren disease.8 The disease is particularly common in northern parts of Europe9,10 and in countries where people of Northern European descent live. The majority of prevalence studies has been conducted in Scandinavia and in the United Kingdom. Sporadic cases have been identified in other parts of the world, such as Africa and the Far East.11,12 The prevalence of Dupuytren disease has been found to vary from 0.2 to 56 percent,13 indicating great heterogeneity between study populations. Prevalence rates of Northern European countries such as The Netherlands and Germany are unknown. Because life expectancy is expected to