Dermatophytic onyxis

Dermatophytic onychomycosis (DO) is a common nail disease in developing countries, including Tunisia. The objective of our work is to determine the prevalence of OD, describe the diagnostic methods and the distribution of the species involved. This is a retrospective study that included 170 patients with OD for three months. OD was confirmed in 101 patients, i.e. a prevalence of 59.4%. The sex ratio was 1.1 (53% were male). The age group most affected was 40-59 years (54%). The mean age of the patients was 46.6 ±13.9 years. Nine percent of our patients were diabetic. The most common site of OD was the toenail (92%). ED and culture are sensitive to 92% and 47.5% respectively. The isolated species were: Trichophyton rubrum (87.5%) followed by Trichophyton mentagrophytes (10.4%) and Microsporum canis (2%). Our study confirms that DOs are frequent in the Tunisian population. Mycological examination is essential to confirm the clinical diagnosis and identify the pathogen, in order to select the most appropriate treatment.