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Acta Dermato-Venereologica, vol.81, no.3, pp.181-183, 2001 (SCI-Expanded)
There are many options for the treatment of ingrowing toenail, ranging from simple conservative approaches to extensive surgical procedures. Although conservative treatment modalities are helpful in patients with stage 1 disease, stage 2 and 3 ingrowing toenails are best treated surgically. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of chemical matricectomy with phenol for the treatment of ingrowing toenail. A total of 350 phenol ablations were performed on 172 patients with stage 2 and 3 disease. Each patient was reviewed weekly until full wound healing was achieved and afterwards, to assess the long-term efficacy of the treatment, they were followed up for a mean period of 25 months. The healing period after the operation ranged from 2 to 4 weeks and no postoperative complications were seen. Only two recurrences (0.57%) were observed, after 9 and 17 months, respectively, and nail spikes had developed in only two toes (0.57%). The success rate was found to be 98.8%. We conclude that phenol cauterization is an excellent surgical method for the treatment of ingrowing toenail because of its simplicity, low morbidity and high success rate.