Quality of life improvement in aged patients after toenail surgery

Abstract

Background: Patients of all ages can develop nail disorders, such as onychocryptosis, which are recurrent and painful conditions.

Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the quality of life in a group of aged patients with recurrent and painful ingrown toenails before and after chemical nail surgery to treat onychocryptosis.

Material and methods: The study design utilized a presurgery and a postsurgery questionnaire and examined prospective serial cases. The participants were drawn from an outpatient podiatric clinic from 1 January 2015 to 29 August 2016. The final sample of patients (>65 years old) underwent nail surgery with chemical matricectomy using phenol. In addition to the chemical nail surgical procedure, the patients completed the Manchester-Oxford Foot Questionnaire (MOXFQ) and the Borg CR-10 scale category ratio (CR) within 4 weeks prior to surgery. The patients completed both questionnaires again through mailing 3 months postsurgery.

Results: Lower MOXFQ scores were noted after surgery, demonstrating an improvement in quality of life after chemical nail surgery. Men and women exhibited similar results (p > 0.05), with the exception of the Borg CR-10 scale where women reported more residual pain compared with men, with scores of 1.26 ± 1.65 and 0.09 ± 0.20, respectively (p = 0.011).

Conclusion: After a chemical nail surgery procedure, the quality of life improved in aged patients with recurrent and painful ingrown toenails.

Keywords: Nail diseases; Pain; Podiatry; Questionnaire; Surgical procedures.