Wide-awake anesthesia in Dupuytren's contracture treated with collagenase

The injection of collagenase followed by cord manipulation is one of the most popular treatments for Dupuytren's contracture. This is traditionally performed under local anesthesia or regional nerve block potentially with sedation. Neither the treatment with collagenase, nor the wide-awake anesthesia are novel techniques for hand surgeons. Nevertheless, we report the first experience of cord manipulation using the wide-awake approach. In this prospective study, we compared the pain perception of patients who underwent wide-awake anesthesia versus traditional local anesthesia. We recorded the pain sensation on a visual analog scale (VAS) (0 to 10) during anesthetic injection, during cord manipulation and before discharge. Wide-awake anesthesia significantly reduced pain levels during anesthetic injection (p = 0.003) and cord manipulation (p = 0.0009). Pain levels did not differ significantly right before discharge in the two groups (p = 0.54). Wide-awake anesthesia can be successfully applied to cord manipulation after collagenase injection in Dupuytren's contracture. This way, it is possible to improve the patient's subjective perspective of the procedure.