Trick of the Trade: Finger nailbed laceration repair
Over the years, I have been frustrated by how inelegant finger nailbed closure is. Nailbed lacerations are often sustained by a major crush injury, resulting in a stellate and irregular laceration pattern. This typically also requires the crushed fingernail to be removed. Cosmesis is never ideal because pieces of the nailbed are often missing, as seen in the photo above.
Occasionally, nailbed lacerations are caused by a cutting rather than a crush mechanism. In these cases, I use a different technique. I leave the fingernail on. In fact, I use the fingernail to help reapproximate the nailbed edges.
A few days I wrote about my “peripheral brain” note cards that I carry with me on each ED shift. These cards contain brief summaries of updated guidelines, evidence based literature, and clinical pearls. I constantly get requests for a copy of them, but they are fairly outdated now that I’m out of residency.