The goal of this study is to describe hospitalization for treatment of Dupuytren's disease in France between 2002 and 2009.

A repeated, annual, cross-sectional national survey of public and private French hospitals was performed between 2002 and 2009, with planned selection criteria for data extraction. Outcomes were age, sex, number of hospitalizations, length of stays, and types of surgical procedure. Types of surgical procedure included aponeurectomy, aponeurotomy, transplantation (skin graft), arthrolysis, amputation, arthrodesis, combined procedures.

The selected hospital stays represented 95% to 97% of all stays with Dupuytren's disease coded as the primary diagnosis. The hospitalizations involved mainly men in the 7th decade. The mean number of hospitalizations for Dupuytren's disease was 16,487, for between 7 and 8/10,000 total hospitalizations each year. Most of the hospitalizations for Dupuytren's disease were one-day stays in private settings. Over time, the mean length of hospital stay significantly shortened and the proportion of one-day stays significantly increased. Aponeurectomy was the most reported treatment. The distribution of aponeurectomy of 1 finger or ≥ 2 fingers was balanced. The performance of arthrolysis, transplantation, amputation and arthrodesis was low.

Despite of shortening of hospitals stays over time, hospitalization for surgery for Dupuytren's disease in France still represents a meaningful economic burden.

Observational study II.