Abstract
Four cases of subungual exostosis are herein reported. The lesions were seen on the right 1st toe, left 2nd toe, right index finger and right 1st toe. In general, subungual exostosis demonstrates a solitary hard tumor found on the distal phalanx of the great toe, either beneath or adjacent to the nail. Trauma may be a precipitating factor though the exact cause of this lesion is still unknown. There have been a few cases caused after significant trauma, but some authors said that such patients might also have had chronic microtrauma due to some sports, e. g. soccer, basketball, baseball, judo etc. Two out of our four cases had sports backgrounds (soccer, baseball) while one of the other 2 cases had suffered a significant irritation to his toe. Histologically, 2 were exostosis type, 1 osteochondroma type and 1 mixed type. A local excision is the treatment of choice in principle. We operated all cases under local anesthesia and no recurrence has been recognized. Recently, sports population is raised, so similar cases of our cases might be increasing.
