Retronychia – a different ingrown toenail

By Sam Brown|2025-02-25T08:31:49+00:00March 20th, 2022|

What is retronychia?

Retronychia is a nail condition where the proximal section of toenail (base of the nail) is ingrown into the proximal nail fold. It is characterised by redness and swelling at the proximal nail fold and is a condition that often gets misdiagnosed by practitioners.

What causes retronychia?

Retronychia is generally caused by some form of trauma affecting the proximal section of the toenail. This can be caused by:

Acute trauma
Repetitive trauma such as shoes that are too small.

Retronychia can often affect the toenails of dancers and athletes.

Due to the trauma with retronychia you often get a new nail growing underneath the old nail and this pushes the old nail up into the proximal nail fold, causing redness and inflammation. Because of the trauma the underlying nail matrix is often damaged so a new nail does not grow out. Hence a tell tale sign of retronychia is when the nail is not growing.

How is retronychia treated?

Retronychia is often misdiagnosed as an isolated infection of the proximal nail fold. Antibiotics will help settle any associated infection but it will not fix the problem as it is not addressing the cause. To successfully treat retronychia you need to remove the damaged toenail.

At Melbourne Podiatrists & Orthotics our podiatrists can perform nail surgery to remove a damaged toenail and successfully treat retronychia. However, unlike tradition ingrown toenail surgery this procedure does not involve the application of phenol to the nail bed, so a new nail can still grow. After retronychia nail removal the inflammation at the proximal nail fold quickly resolves but it will take approximately 12-18 months or more for a new nail to fully grow back. The new nail growth should be closely monitored by one of our Melbourne podiatrists to prevent future issues.