What is the cause of the swelling and pain next to the toenail?

If there is swelling, pain and pustules next to the toenails, you should pay attention to whether it is paronychia, because paronychia is the most common toenail disease caused by infection and bacteria, and the pain is quite excruciating. Therefore, you should pay attention to these symptoms and manifestations, and you can use hot compresses, physical therapy or some antibiotics for treatment.

1. Cause

Paronychia is mostly caused by punctures, abrasions, ingrown nails or pulling out "inserted skin thorns" of the nail groove and surrounding tissues. Subungual abscess is often caused by the spread of paronychia, infection caused by subungual puncture, or secondary infection of subungual hematoma caused by fingertip compression injury. The main pathogen is Staphylococcus aureus.

2. Clinical manifestations

At the beginning, one side of the nail groove will become red, swollen and painful, and it may become purulent and infected within a short period of time. It may spread to the base of the nail and the opposite nail groove, forming perionychia, or it may spread to the subungual area to form a subungual abscess. At this time, the pain intensifies and the swelling is obvious. Yellow-white pus can be seen under the nail floating up the nail. If not treated in time, it may develop into purulent dactylitis and even cause phalangeal osteomyelitis. It may also become chronic paronychia, persistent paronychia or subungual abscess. Because the infection is relatively superficial, the systemic symptoms are often not obvious.

3. Treatment

In the early stages, hot compresses, physical therapy, external compresses, and the application of iodine amines or antibiotics can be used. If there is pus, a longitudinal incision can be made at the nail groove for drainage. When the infection has spread to the subcutaneous area around the nail base, a longitudinal incision can be made in the nail grooves on both sides, the epithelial sheet on the nail root can be turned up, the root of the nail can be removed, and a small piece of vaseline gauze or latex sheet can be placed for drainage. If pus has accumulated under the nail bed, the nail should be removed or the nail above the abscess cavity should be trimmed. When removing nails, be careful to avoid damaging the nail bed to prevent deformities of the new nails in the future.