Nail Disorders

A Comprehensive Approach

Archana Singal, Shekhar Neema, Piyush Kumar, Archana Singal, Shekhar Neema, Piyush Kumar

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367731717
• eBook ISBN: 9781351139700
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Dermatology

Nail disorders are a specialized group of disorders which are often neglected during post graduate teaching. This book aims to provide a comprehensive review covering the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of nail disorders. It discusses the basics of nail unit, common conditions like infections, tumors and genetic diseases, diagnostic armamentarium involved in nail diseases like KOH mount, onychoscopy, imaging and surgical management of nail diseases which includes anesthesia of nail unit, nail biopsy and advanced nail procedures including video demonstration of such procedures. This book elaborates on nails in systemic diseases and briefly covers nail cosmetics and nail photography.

Key Features

• Comprehensively reviews nail disorders
• Includes diagnosis, therapeutic and surgical aspect
• Discusses Onychoscopy
• Reviews the importance of nail photography

PART 1

History and Normal Nail

1 History of nail diseases

Amiya Kumar Mukhopadhyay

2 Nail anatomy and physiology

Pooja Arora Mrig and Neha Meena

3 Nail unit signs

Niharika Ranjan Lal, Piyush Kumar, and Rizwana Barkat

4 An approach to nail examination

Shikha Bansal and Neha Kumar

1

History of nail diseases

AMIYA KUMAR MUKHOPADHYAY

Introduction

History of nail diseases in ancient civilizations

Mesopotamia

Egypt

Greece

Rome

India

The nail and its diseases in the “dark period” of the history of medicine

Nail diseases in the modern era

“Nail” in the last 100 years

Epilogue

References

“Ungues nigri et digiti manuum et pedum frigidi, contracti, vel remissi mortem in, propinquo esse ostendunt”.

Hippocrates (Section VIII, Aphorism 12)

[Trans. Blackness of the nails, coldness, contraction, or relaxation of the fingers and toes—foreshow the near approach of death.]

INTRODUCTION

Nails, though considered “dead structures,” have attracted attention since antiquity. They occupy a very small area of the body, yet play a very significant role. Nails not only act as vital instruments that help picking, scratching, cutting, crushing, gripping, clinging, and many more activities, but they have also remained a target that has attracted people pursuing diverse activities—from artists to archaeologists, sorcerers to crime detectors, doctors to designers, commoners to celebrities, and almost everyone! Any defects in such an important structure have fascinated the common as well as medical men since the early days. This is evident in the diverse archaeological artefacts, votive reliefs, mummies, literatures (both medical and non-medical), paintings, relics, etc.

Nails not only have their own problems in the form of various diseases, but also act as a screen on which the stories of different systemic illnesses are recorded. Even being such a significant part of the body and the fact that the incidence of the diseases of the nail claims a considerable portion of the total dermatological disorders in modern medical science, it has attracted very little interest of the medical world in the remote as well as recent past. However, in modern medicine onychology—the subject dealing with nail diseases and related problems—has secured a noteworthy position. This present scenario is the outcome of accumulation of knowledge since ancient times gathered by the human race from all corners of the globe. The systematic study of the nail and its ailments started only 200 or at the most 300 years back. This present chapter is a brief overview of this evolutionary aspect of the history of nail diseases.

The scientific study of the nail and its diseases has started only some 300 years back as already mentioned, with the study of Robert Boyle, Albrecht Haller, and others, but the evidence of the presence of nail disorders is obtainable in the history of almost all ancient civilizations. For the sake of discussion, the history of nail diseases will be discussed in the following compartments of time periods divided arbitrarily:

1. History of nail diseases in ancient civilizations (pre-historic period–AD 400)

2. The nail and its diseases in the “Dark Period” of the history of medicine (AD 400–AD 1400)

3. Nail diseases in the modern era (AD 1400–present period)

HISTORY OF NAIL DISEASES IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

The human civilization began its journey from different points on the globe, as did diseases and deformities. For example, the presence of horizontal lines on the nails (Beau’s lines) that probably developed after some significant suffering months before death in the oldest preserved European subject (5200 years) is a fascinating instance of nail diseases in ancient days.¹

From the very early days of life, the need to fight diseases and the necessity to maintain a healthy life were recognized in both animals and plants. As far as human civilization, the observation regarding the causation, course, and remedy of diseases has caught the attention of man since the primeval period. Significantly, diseases of the nail have been mentioned in the early medical literature of various civilizations.

Mesopotamia

In the ancient civilization of the river valleys of Mesopotamia that flourished during the fourth millennium BC, the mention of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Editors
• Contributors
• PART 1 HISTORY AND NORMAL NAIL
• PART 2 DIAGNOSTICS
• PART 3 NAIL UNIT ABNORMALITIES
• PART 4 INFLAMMATORY NAIL DISEASES
• PART 5 INFECTIVE NAIL DISEASES
• PART 6 NAIL IN DERMATOLOGICAL AND SYSTEMIC DISEASES; OCCUPATION AND DRUG INDUCED NAIL CHANGES
• PART 7 NAIL IN SPECIAL POPULATIONS
• PART 8 NAIL UNIT TUMORS
• PART 9 PSYCHOCUTANEOUS NAIL DISORDERS
• PART 10 SURGICAL MANAGEMENT OF NAIL DISEASES
• PART 11 NAIL COSMETICS
• PART 12 MISCELLANEOUS CONDITIONS
• Index