Comparison of healing time and recurrence between phenol-alcohol procedure and aesthetic reconstruction procedure in patients with onychocryptosis.

The same clinic (Dr. Pedro Montaño Jiménez) carried out all the surgical procedures of the hallux. The surgical procedure the authors proposed consisted in the partial ablation of the nail associated with a Aesthetic Reconstrucion of the nail fold. First, a digital blocking of the hallux using 2% of Mepivacaine, after a surgical scrubbing of the operatory field, a digital tourniquet was done for the local hemostasis of the hallux; prior marking with a dermographic pencil of the portion of the nail lamina to be extracted. The nail plate affected was separated from the nail bed and the eponychium with a free hoist. The first cut was with an English-type cutter and afterward with a nº 15 scalpel. Next, the fragments of the nail plate were extracted with a Martini curette. A wedge excision of the soft tissue, including the nail matrix and the bed of the portion of tissue affected, was done, drying out the edges of the hypertrophic folds were this necessary. To check the intraoperative result of the excision a coaptation of the folds of the nail was carried out and subsequently a careful curettage of the matrix zone and the sub-nail bed was done using a Martini curette. After scrubbing with pressurized physiological serum, we reconstructed the nail folds with the help of approximation strips. The surgical wound was covered with non-stick absorbent sterile polypropylene impregnated with antiseptic and a partial bandage of the hallux was put in place. The hemostasis was removed, the blood test was checked, and a definitive compressive bandage was placed on the hallux.