Full Thickness Skin Graft for Nail Unit Reconstruction

Abstract

A retrospective study of 13 patients assessed the use of a full thickness skin graft for nail unit reconstruction after total nail unit removal for nail bed malignancies. No failures of the graft were observed and no patient had recurrence of the malignant tumour at 4 year follow-up. Full thickness skin grafting is a simple procedure which provides a good cosmetic outcome and does not produce significant donor site morbidity.

Histopathological analysis of the progression pattern of subungual melanoma: late tendency of dermal invasion in the nail matrix area

“…4 Recently, however, some authors have suggested a non-amputative conservative treatment of subungual melanoma to preserve the phalangeal bone for in situ or thin lesions of subungual melanoma. 5,6,[18][19][20] Few publications provide Abbreviations: A&W, alive and well; NA, not available.…”

Diagnosis and management of nail pigmentations

“…The resulting defect can be repaired either with a split-or full-thickness skin graft. [48][49][50][51][52] Although it is possible to allow wound healing by secondary intention, this will often result in a surface that is not smooth and can have spicules of keratinizing tissue and, thus, is not as comfortable for the patient as the results obtained with a skin graft.…”

Multiple subungual soft tissue metastases from a chondrosarcoma

“…He also had pain and swelling of the soft tissues of the finger tips. Like the treatment of subungual soft tissue sarcomas reported by Lazar et al [3] we chose to treat the finger lesion by a complete resection of the nail unit (R0) to avoid amputation [5]. Lazar et al based their strategy on anatomical considerations and analysis of other reports.…”

“…We did an en bloc resection of the nail unit [3] for the thumb lesion (Figure 1a) with immediate coverage using a full thickness skin graft. The ring finger was not reoperated on.…”