Private Dupuytren's Contracture Treatment in Canada

It genuinely depends on you, and this is the whole point of the consultation. Needle aponeurotomy is quick, needs no incision, and has you using your hand within days, but the contracture tends to return sooner and a majority of severe cases recur within a few years. Open fasciectomy removes the diseased tissue, gives the most durable correction, and has the lowest recurrence, but it is a real operation with a few weeks of recovery and hand therapy afterward. A common pattern is the needle for older patients who value a fast recovery and are happy to repeat it, and open surgery for younger patients or more severe cords where a lasting result is worth the bigger recovery. Your surgeon offers both, so the advice you get is not shaped by which one they happen to do.

You may have come across collagenase, sold as Xiaflex, an injection that dissolves the cord. It is worth being straight with you: it was approved in Canada, but the manufacturer withdrew it from the Canadian market in 2020, and it is no longer commercially available here. We would rather tell you that plainly than have you ask for something that cannot be obtained. In Canada today, the two realistic treatments are needle aponeurotomy and open fasciectomy, and those are what this page compares. If that ever changes, the option will be added here.

There is no single price, and the two approaches differ. A needle aponeurotomy is a small clinic procedure; an open fasciectomy is a proper operation with hand therapy afterward. Your cost depends on which route suits you, how many fingers are involved, how severe or recurrent the disease is, and the facility. Instead of quoting a range that may not apply to you, ACCESS reviews your hand, works out the right approach, and gives you one written, all-inclusive quote before anything is booked. Financing options and the CRA Medical Expense Tax Credit may also apply.

Long, and because Dupuytren's is painless it tends to sink to the bottom of the queue. It is not among the wait-time benchmarks Canada reports against, so there is no public figure for it. The Fraser Institute's 2025 survey of Canadian physicians put the median reported wait for plastic surgery, the specialty in which hand surgery is performed, at 41.5 weeks from family doctor referral to treatment. The catch with Dupuytren's is that while you wait, the finger keeps bending, and a contracture that reaches the middle joint of the finger becomes harder to correct fully.

It can, and we will not pretend otherwise, because managing that expectation is part of doing this honestly. Dupuytren's is a genetic tendency in the tissue, not just a single cord, so treating one cord does not cure the underlying disease. Recurrence is more likely and sooner after the needle procedure, and less likely and later after open surgery, but no treatment guarantees the finger will never bend again. That is not a reason to avoid treatment, it is a reason to choose the right one for your situation and to know what to watch for afterward. Your surgeon will show you.

Yes. Travelling within Canada for privately funded surgery is a legitimate, well-established pathway, and coordinating it is exactly what ACCESS does. If you have the needle procedure, it is a very short trip. If you have open surgery, plan on being reviewed before you fly and on doing hand therapy once you are home, which we arrange for you. We handle the flights, the accommodation and the car, and coordinate your follow-up and therapy close to home.