Clinical and mycological characteristics of onychomycosis due to Candida at Institut Pasteur of Côte d'Ivoire

This study aims to study the clinical and mycological characteristics of onychomycosis due to Candida in mycology unit of Institut Pasteur of Côte d'Ivoire. This is a retrospective study which was carried out on patients from 1990 to 2016 for mycological diagnosis of onychomycosis and which socio-demographic characteristics, direct examination and culture results were recorded. In this study, 1898 patient files were selected. The average age of the patients was 31.69 years (standard deviation=15.11) with a sex ratio of 0.87. The frequency of Candida onychomycosis from patients received was 61.7%. Finger nails (67.7%) were more affected by this condition, followed by those of the toes (25.3%). Ninety cases of double localization of the nails of the hands and toes have been found. Candida albicans was the most frequent species accounting for 79.1% of isolated yeasts. Among the non-albicans, C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis were isolated at the level of the toenails with frequencies rate of 11.2 and 9.6%. Onychomycosis due to Candida are relatively common in Abidjan and are dominated by C. albicans. The mycological confirmation of the fungal etiology in onychopathy and a good hygiene of the nails will allow a better management.