Traditional management (referred to as "operative management") of a nail avulsion is to replace the nail in the epicanthal fold and suture this in place. A study was done to see if wound cleaning and placement of a non-adhesive dressing was non inferior to this traditional management. The primary outcome was the appearance of the new nail at 6 months as determined by 2 separate physicians using a Nail Appearance Score (NAS) and who were blinded to the treatment groups. The secondary outcomes were patient and parental satisfaction and infection rate. There were no statistically significant differences in the NAS or patient and parental satisfaction scores between the 2 groups.
Parents were informed of both options and allowed to choose between the treatments. Patients between 1-16 years with proximal or complete nail bed avulsion injuries were included.
Conclusions: In this small study, non-operative management for fingernail avulsions was not inferior to operative management.
References
Petruzella F, Easter JS. Pediatric emergency medicine literature 2020. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2021;43:123-133
