Question
I had very bad ingrowing nails on both first and second toes. I had these surposidly permanent removed. It didn't work and to cut along story short ended up having the procedure done 10 times. I kept getting splinters of nail growth which would cause problems and friction to the skin. i got so fed up of it that i finally was transferred to the Orthopedics department, as i was under the dept of general surgery. my consultant said he would do the operation again. I was very annoyed as it had already failed a previous 10 times, so what could he do. He told me that in Orthopedics they do things differently and he was very confident that it would work. i was given a general anesthetic and when i came round my toes had stitches in them. They had never had stitches in them before. I do have problems with the skin but up to know don't think i have nail regrowth. One of my consultants team came to see me after surgery and said to me that there is no reason that the op wouldn't work. I have to remove the hard skin and i have a lump where they had put the stitches but they are better. My question is is how were they so sure that it would work this time and what did they do differently. The dept of general surgery never used stitches and they also never cut as deep into the skin. They would just remove the nail and then burn the bed i think?????

Answer
Hi,

These are 2 methods of permanent ingrown nail removal.  If you had a podiatrist do the chemical procedure without the stitches it likely would have worked.  My success rate is about 98% for this procedure and I've done it for 22 years.  The procedure done by the orthopedist is an old type of procedure and it has no better success rate, you were just lucky that it worked out. The procedure is rarely done anymore.  It is called a Winograd procedure.

Sincerely,

Marc Katz, DPM
Tampa, FL
Advanced Podiatry
www.thetampapodiatrist.com
www.tampacryosurgery.com

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