There is a completely unfounded theory that an early Pope might have had Dupuytrens because the contracture of the fingers resembles the traditional way the Pope raises his hand in blessing.
The disease is often related to RSI. Dupuytrens was an 18th C surgeon who noticed that the whip hand of his coachman was deformed. The coachman was the first to have (an apparently sucessful) correction. Whether he was able to give anything like informed consent I rather doubt.