New, Effective and Minimally Invasive Technique for the Treatment of Ingrown Toenails: Our Application Experiences

Ingrown nail is a serious medical problem and the correct approach for its treatment is still controversial in the existing literature. In this study, we presented the results of our application experiences on our new developed technique for the treatment of ingrown toenails. The study is a prospective clinical quasi experimental study for treatment. This study included 147 patients who applied to SBU Sultan 2. Abdülhamid Han Training and Research Hospital, General Surgery Clinic with the complaint of ingrown toenails. The duration of the study covers October 2018 to March 2022 and the 6-month follow-up period for each patient. All the patients were treated with this minimally invasive technique. In this technique, a piece cut in the form of a half-groove, 3–4 cm long, obtained from the tube part of the intravenous drip set plastic, is placed between the dermis and the nail in a sandwich model and fixed to the nail with the suture technique. According to the results of the study, overall recurrence rate was low at 9.5% (14 patients). The follow-up results by the end of six months demonstrated that the technique is very effective for the treatment of ingrown toenails that 94.5% of the patients had no complaints. Our application experiences with our new minimally invasive technique for treating ingrown toenails, presented in this study, have shown that this technique is quite effective. The main advantages of the technique are the preservation of the anatomy and function of the nail, high patient satisfaction, less pain, rapid recovery, low recurrence rate, and ensuring patients a quick return to their daily activities or work life.