Collagenase Injection Therapy Improves Health-related Quality of Life in Patients with Dupuytren's Disease.

OBJECTIVES

This study was conducted to investigate the changes in clinical and psychosocial outcomes in patients with Dupuytren's disease after initial treatment with collagenase (CCH) injection.

METHODS

This study involved 14 patients with Dupuytren's disease who underwent treatment with CCH injection. The range of motion of each phalangeal joint was measured before treatment and at 6 months posttreatment. The following assessments were also carried out pre- and posttreatment: the Geriatric Depression Scale Short - Japanese version (GDS-J) to evaluate depressive status, Hand 10 to assess hand health status, and EuroQol-5-dimension-3-level Japanese version to evaluate health-related quality of life.

RESULTS

Significant improvements were found in metacarpophalangeal joint extension and proximal interphalangeal joint extension. Significant differences were also found between values before the initiation of CCH injection and those at 6 months posttreatment for the EuroQol index score and the EuroQol Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Significant positive correlations were found between the pre- to posttreatment change in GDS-J scores and for the change in Hand 10 scores. Moreover, a significant negative correlation was found between the change in GDS-J scores and change in EuroQol index scores/EuroQol VAS scores before and at 6 months after CCH injection.

CONCLUSIONS

For patients with Dupuytren's disease, CCH therapy directly improved the health-related quality of life. The degree of improvement of depressive status was associated with the degree of improvement of hand health status and health-related quality of life.