Abstract

Background: Paronychia is a common infectious disease affecting fingernails and toenails. Although bacterial and fungal infections as well as mechanical trauma may play roles in the pathogenesis of this disease, there are few bacteriological studies about paronychia in military personnel.

Objective: To identify the causative bacteria of paronychia in military personnel.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the microbiological results of 145 patients who visited a tertiary referral hospital for Korean soldiers from August 2004 to October 2006.

Results: Twenty-eight different types of aerobic bacteria were identified, with the most common being Staphylococcus aureus (38.0%), Streptococcus pyogenes (7.2%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5.4%). Staphylococcus aureus was identified mostly in finger and toe paronychial lesions and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was recovered commonly from toe paronychial lesions. All cases of paronychia were controlled by the combination of antiseptic dressing, topical antibacterial ointment, oral antibiotics, and antimycotic agents.

Conclusion: The types of bacteria that most commonly caused paronychia in military personnel were Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus pyogenes, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Thus, the commonly used oral antibiotics for paronychia, such as amoxicillin-clavulanate, clindamycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, are good choices in the treatment of paronychia in military personnel.

Keywords

Paronychia

KJMM 2012 September;17(3):163-167(5). Epub 2016 February 17
Copyright © 2012 by Korean Journal of Medical Mycology

Language

English

Author

Sang Min Lee; Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Myoung Shin Kim; Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Nark Kyoung Rho; Leaders Aesthetic Laser & Cosmetic Surgery Center, Seoul, Korea
Chong Hyun Won; Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Sung Eun Chang; Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Mi Woo Lee; Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Jee Ho Choi; Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Kee Chan Moon; Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding

Chong Hyun Won, Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88, Olympic-Ro 43-gil, Song-Gu, Seoul 138-736, Korea. Tel: +82-2-3010-3461, Fax: +82-2-486-7831, e-mail: chwon98@chol.com; Nark Kyoung Rho, Leaders Aesthetic Laser & Cosmetic Surgery Center, Seoul, Korea. Tel: +82-2-444-7585, Fax: +82-2-444-7535, e-mail: rhonark@hanmail.net

Publication history

Received 10 May 2012; Revised 3 August 2012; Accepted 6 August 2012.

Acknowledgements

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sang Min Lee

Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Myoung Shin Kim

Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Nark Kyoung Rho

Leaders Aesthetic Laser & Cosmetic Surgery Center, Seoul, Korea

Chong Hyun Won

Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Sung Eun Chang

Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Mi Woo Lee

Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Jee Ho Choi

Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Kee Chan Moon

Department of Dermatology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Since epub date 2016 February 17