Surgical Treatment of Ingrown Toenail

Ingrown toenail should be treated surgically as soon as possible if it causes severe pain, marked erythema and purulent discharge. Surgical treatment methods can be classified in accordance with anatomic deformity such as presence of wide nail plate and/or hypertrophic lateral nail fold. In the presence of a wide nail plate, matricectomy can be performed in different ways. Nail fold resection, lateral foldplasty, Vandenbos, Howard-Dubois, Noel, and super-U techniques can he applied when hypertrophic lateral nail fold is present. If hypertrophic nail fold and wide nail plate are present simultaneously then phenol matricectomy and curettage or lateral foldplasty and limited lateral matricectomy can be performed. In the surgical treatment of ingrown toenail, an algorithmic approach to the existing structural disorder is recommended.