Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015:15:133-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijscr.2015.08.037. Epub 2015 Aug 30.

Case report of nail bed injury after blunt trauma; what lies beneath the nail?

Geraldine L Nanninga  1 , Kevin de Leur  2 , Anne Loes van den Boom  2 , Mark R de Vries  2 , Tessa M van Ginhoven  2
Affiliations

Case report of nail bed injury after blunt trauma; what lies beneath the nail?

Geraldine L Nanninga et al. Int J Surg Case Rep. 2015.

Abstract

Introduction: A stable, mobile and sensate fingertip is of paramount importance to perform daily tasks and sense dangerous situations. Unfortunately, fingertips are easily injured with various extents of soft tissue damage. Delayed and inadequate treatment of nail bed injuries may cause substantial clinical problems. The aim is to increase awareness about nail bed injuries among physicians who often treat these patients.

Presentation of case: We present a 26-year-old male with blunt trauma to a distal phalanx. Conventional radiographs showed an intra-articular, multi-fragmentary fracture of the distal phalanx. At the outpatient department the nail was removed and revealed a lacerated nail bed, more than was anticipated upon during the first encounter at the emergency department.

Discussion: Blunt trauma to the fingertip occurs frequently and nail bed injuries are easy to underestimate. An adequate emergency treatment of nail bed injuries is needed to prevent secondary deformities and thereby reduce the risk of secondary reconstruction of the nail bed, which often gives unpredictable results.

Conclusion: However, adequate initial assessment and treatment are important to achieve the functional and cosmetic outcomes. Therefore awareness of physicians at the emergency department is essential.

Keywords: Blunt trauma; Distal Phalanx; Fingertip injuries; Nail bed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A = Clinical picture of the initial trauma; B + C = X-ray of the initial trauma; D = peroperative image of the nail bed; E = peroperative image of the nail; F = postoperative image after a 7-month follow-up.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
An algorithm for the treatment of blunt fingertip injuries .
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Yeo C.J., Sebastin S.J., Chong A.K. Fingertip injuries. Singap. Med. J. 2010;51(1):78–86. quiz 7. Epub 2010/03/05. - PubMed
    1. Tos P., Titolo P., Chirila N.L., Catalano F., Artiaco S. Surgical treatment of acute fingernail injuries. J. Orthop. Traumatol. 2012;13(2):57–62. Epub /10/11. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chang J., Vernadakis A.J., McClellan W.T. Fingertip injuries. Clin. Occup. Environ. Med. 2006;5(2):413–422. ix. Epub 2006/05/02. - PubMed
    1. Shaw A., Findlay J., Kulkarni M. Management of fingertip and nail bed injuries. Br. J. Hosp. Med. (Lond.) 2011;72(8):M114–M118. Epub 2011/08/16. - PubMed
    1. Doraiswamy N.V. Childhood finger injuries and safeguards. Inj. Prev. 1999;5(4):298–300. Epub 2000/01/11. - PMC - PubMed