• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.111-115
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• 2018

Purpose: Ingrown toenails are a common disease in the adolescent period and the treatments could be more conservative for this early stage of the disease. This study is a case series on the results of a gutter splint for an adolescent ingrown toe nail as a simple, comfortable treatment method. Materials and Methods: From 2011 to 2018, 22 patients (mean age, 12.2 years; range, 8~15 years) with ingrown toenails were treated with a gutter splint. There were 16 boys and 6 girls with 7 patients on both great toes, and additional 4 both corners of a nail, giving a total of 33 splints. Flat, plastic straws and glue or suture were used to protect the nail corners under local anesthesia. The medical records were reviewed retrospectively and phone calls were made to obtain the long-term results. Results: Fifteen splints were fixed with a suture and the other 18 splints were fixed with glue. There were 9 cases of recurrence out of 33 gutter splints, 8 out of 15 sutured splints and 1 out of 18 glued splints (p=0.010). There was no gender (p=0.383) or age (p=0.305) difference in the number of recurrences. Conclusion: For growing people, ingrown nails can be cured easily by conservative treatment for a transiently shortened or broken toenail. The glued gutter splint had a reasonable success rate as a first line treatment.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.207-213
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• 2015

Background Pincer nail deformity is a transverse overcurvature of the nail. This study aimed to define the anatomical characteristics of pincer nail deformity and to evaluate the surgical outcomes. Methods A retrospective review was conducted on 20 cases of pincer nail deformity of the great toe. Thirty subjects without pincer nail deformity or history of trauma of the feet were selected as the control group. Width and height indices were calculated, and interphalangeal angles and base widths of the distal phalanx were measured with radiography. We chose the surgical treatment methods considering perfusion-related factors such as age, diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, and peripheral vascular disease. The zigzag nail bed flap method (n=9) and the inverted T incision method (n=11) were used to repair deformities. The outcomes were evaluated 6 months after surgery. Results The interphalangeal angle was significantly greater in the preoperative patient group ($14.0^{\circ}{\pm}3.6^{\circ}$) than in the control group ($7.9^{\circ}{\pm}3.0^{\circ}$) (P<0.05). The postoperative width and height indices were very close to the measurements in the control group, and most patients were satisfied with the outcomes. Conclusions We believe that the width and height indices are useful for evaluating the deformity and outcomes of surgical treatments. We used two different surgical methods for the two patient groups with respect to the perfusion-related factors and found that the outcomes were all satisfactory. Consequently, we recommend taking into consideration the circulatory condition of the foot when deciding upon the surgical method for pincer nail deformity.