The treatment of ingrown nail: Chemical matricectomy with NAOH versus wedge resection.

Abstract

Ingrown nail is a common problem seen in the dermatology clinics. The aim of this study is to compare the wedge resection method and chemical matricectomy with NaOH in terms of operation time, postoperative pain severity, postoperative drainage, recurrence rates, recovery time, and the effects of these two methods on Dermatology Quality of Life Index. This study included 60 patients. About 42 nail edges of 30 patients were treated with NaOH for chemical matricectomy and wedge resection was performed for 33 nail edges of 30 patients. Operation time for chemical matricectomy and wedge resection was an average of 7.66 ± 3.65 and 19.25 ± 5.54 min (p < .001). Recovery time was an average of 17.27 ± 14.22 days for chemical matricectomy and an average of 28.85 ± 17.03 days for wedge resection (p = .004). Recurrence was detected in 5.4% of the nail edges treated with chemical matricectomy and 3.6% of the nail edges treated with wedge resection (p = 1.000). Absence of differences for the recurrence rates between wedge resection method and chemical matricectomy method with NaOH shows that effectiveness of these approaches are similar. It seems that quite short operation and recovery times in the chemical matricectomy are the main advantage of the method.