paronychia

A paronychia (pair-oh-NICK-ee-ah) is an abscess curving right around a nailbed of a finger or toe. You have seen them before - typically, the pus that accumulates is greenish in hue. Simple sterile lancing of the abscess is generally enough to cure the infection without oral antibiotics. The nail will be scarred and wrinkled, or perhaps even shed, as a result of the infection. Do not worry. The nail will grow back in a couple of months without any permanent deformity.

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