Translate this page into:
A novel use of a blunt hypodermic needle for cleaning of plicated nail gutter
-
Received: ,
Accepted: ,
How to cite this article: Mukhtar M. A novel use of a blunt hypodermic needle for cleaning of plicated nail gutter. CosmoDerma. 2026;6:35. doi: 10.25259/CSDM_20_2026
PROBLEM
A plicated nail is a unilateral pincer nail that looks like an ingrown nail and is painful. To relieve discomfort quickly, trim the ingrown lateral nail, clean the gutter, and put on wicking or padding. However, there is no perfect device accessible in the clinic to clean keratinous debris in the deep and curved nail gutter. We cleaned the gutter with a hypodermic needle that was readily available.
SOLUTION
A 23 or 24 G hypodermic needle was used. The beveled portion of the needle is broken to make it blunt. After that, the nail gutter is cleaned using a needle to remove the keratinous debris [Figure 1a]. Following trimming, the gutter is sealed with fevikwik glue to harden the gutter floor and blunt the freshly growing lateral nail [Figure 1b and Video 1]. Thus, the blunt hypodermic needle may be a cost-effective aseptic device for cleaning the deep-seated bent or plicated nail gutter keratinous debris before palliative chemical splinting of a plicated nail. This splinting is a wonderful alternative for passive patients who do not want to be operated on, but it needs to be done every 2–4 months depending upon recurrence of symptoms of plicated nail.
- (a) Plicated lateral nail plate is trimmed, and (b) the cleaned nail gutter is splinted with fevikwik.
Video 1:
Video 1:The hypodermic needle is used to clean the gutter. Video available on: https://doi.org/10.25259/CSDM_20_2026Ethical approval:
Institutional Review Board approval is not required.
Declaration of patient consent:
The authors certify that they have obtained all appropriate patient consent forms. In the form, the patient has given consent for their images and other clinical information to be reported in the journal. The patient understands that the patient’s names and initials will not be published and due efforts will be made to conceal their identity, but anonymity cannot be guaranteed.
Conflicts of interest:
There are no conflicts of interest.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology for manuscript preparation:
The authors confirm that there was no use of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology for assisting in the writing or editing of the manuscript and no images were manipulated using AI.
Financial support and sponsorship: Nil.