The early history of Dupuytren's disease
- PMID: 10050238
The early history of Dupuytren's disease
Abstract
Dupuytren's disease may have originated among the Vikings of northern Europe. Possible association of the disease with the Scottish bagpipe-playing MacCrimmon clan and the Papal Sign of Benediction also are examined. The evolution of pathologic understanding and the advent of surgical treatment of the disease in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Europe and North America are reviewed in detail.