Effectiveness of Local Glucocorticoid Infiltration Versus Traditional Gauze Bandaging for the Treatment of Onychocryptosis: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background/objectives: Local intralesional corticosteroid injections into the periungual fold are used to treat patients with onychocryptosis, but their short- or medium-term effects are unknown. The goal was to compare the efficacy of this treatment in stages IIa, IIb, and III of the condition with a common conservative method such as gauze bandaging. Methods: A two-arm randomized trial with 40 patients with stage IIa, IIb, and III onychocryptosis equally assigned into two treatment groups—control (spiculotomy and application of gauze bandaging) and experimental group (spiculotomy and infiltration of corticosteroid)—was performed. Anthropometric data, initial clinical status, pain, and inflammatory measures were collected before and at least one month after the intervention. Results: Pain reduction was higher in the experimental group (5.5 vs. 4.8 points) but with no significant differences (p= 0.306).Corticosteroids significantly reduced inflammation over gauze bandaging (1.9 vs. 1) with significant differences between them (p= 0.029). Conclusions: Corticosteroid infiltration was more effective than gauze bandaging application in reducing inflammation in patients with onychocryptosis, with similar effects on pain. These findings support the clinical importance of corticosteroid treatment for this condition, although a single infiltration may not be sufficient to prevent relapses.