Abstract
Purpose: Akita National Hospital is long-term care hospital with a total of 340 patients. Of the patients, 160 have severe motor and intellectual disabilities, 80 have muscular dystrophy, 94 have intractable neurological diseases, and six have tuberculosis. We aggregated data on onychomycoses among inpatients for the purpose of foot and nail care in the wards.
Methods: We checked the nails of all inpatients. A fungal examination was performed with microscopy in cases in which onychomycosis was suspected. We diagnosed patients with onychomycosis upon detection of hyphae, spores, or pseudohyphae.
Results and Conclusion: We diagnosed a total of 98 patients with onychomycosis: in the toe nails in 94 patients (28.5%) and in the finger nails in 33 patients (10%). Total dystrophic onychomycosis was the predominant type. In patients with onychomycosis in the finger nails, many toe-nail lesions were present (87.8%). In cases suspicious of onychomycosis in the finger nails, we should also pay attention to toe nails.
