A novel cosmetic approach for partial matricectomy in treating ingrown toenails

BackgroundToenails play a great part in protecting toes and peripheral soft tissues, simultaneously playing a cosmetic role. The ideal treatment should result in a functional and aesthetic outcome. ObjectiveTo describe a novel, aesthetic and minimally invasive method to treat ingrown toenail. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed 436 lesions of 395 ingrown toes in 353 patients with a mean age of 26.0 +/- 13.4 (range 10-55) from June 2014 to March 2020 in our department. A novel cosmetic approach for partial matricectomy in treating ingrown toenails was undergone. The average follow-up time was 27.5 +/- 2.8 months. The average period prior to work resumption, recurrence rate, and infection rate were measured. Mean pain Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Mean satisfaction VAS were used to evaluate the foot appearance. ResultsThe average period prior work resumption was 2.2 +/- 2.1 days (range, 0-7 days). The recurrence rate was 1.6% (7 lesions in 6 patients) at more than 2 years of follow-up. There was no critical complication except infection (0.46%). Mean pain VAS reduced from a preoperative score of 7.7 +/- 1.5 points (range, 6-10 points) to a postoperative 3-day score of 2.2 +/- 1.0 points (range, 1-4 points; p < 0.001) while Mean satisfaction VAS improved from 1.5 +/- 1.3 points (range, 0-3 points) to 9.2 +/- 0.6 points (range, 8-10 points; p < 0.001). ConclusionOur proposed approach is minimally invasive relative to conventional methods, which can achieve comparable efficacy to treat ingrown toenails with granulation tissue. Therefore, it can serve as another option to treat this specific type of ingrown toenails.

Automated summary

This study describes a novel, aesthetic, and minimally invasive method for treating ingrown toenails. By retrospectively analyzing 436 lesions of 395 ingrown toes, it was found that this new approach has comparable efficacy in treating ingrown toenails.