Subungual hematoma is bleeding under a fingernail or toe nail. It generally takes place if the nail gets crushed in an injury. It can cause symptoms such as intense pain and throbbing as blood gathers under the nail.
Unless you also have actually broken bones or damage to the nail bed and/or surrounding tissues, this injury generally isn’t worrisome.
Will the Black Spot in My Toe Nail Go Away?
A black spot under your toenail has a couple of causes. Since you have just recently sustained an injury to your toenail, you develop a condition called hematoma, or blood under the nail, that causes a contusion. They can take a long period to clean up. In some cases, the black spot does not disappear up until it grows out with the nail. You may also end up with a dead toenail that ultimately falls off and has to wait until it grows back into a new, healthy toenail. Toenails grow at a much slower speed than fingernails and can take a while to change themselves completely.
If you do lose your toenail, complete replacement of your toenail usually takes about three months, and your new toenail will likely be a bit wavy, thin in some areas and thicker in the others. After 4-5 months, you ought to have a healthy looking toenail.
Because there is blood under the toenail with nowhere to go, and it is continuing the nail, it’s triggering terrible pain. If your pain does not subside quickly, I would recommend you seeking help from a medical professional, who can drain pipes the blood out and will assess it to ensure it has not become contaminated. It would help if you took the infection seriously.
If you continue to harm and the pain increases, this is a bad sign. Toe infection can cause blood infection, gangrene, and even worse, particularly if you have diabetes.
Causes of Bruise Under Toenails
These injuries can take place quickly. You may:
- Slam your finger in an automobile door or house door
- Hit your finger with a heavy object such as a hammer
- Drop a heavy things such as a dumbbell on your toe
- Stub your toe on a hard surface area
If you have a dark area under a nail and have not had an injury, see your doctor to eliminate other possible causes.
Symptoms Related to Bruise Under Toenails
The most common sign is extreme, throbbing pain. It occurs because of the pressure of blood gathering between the nail and the nail bed.
You might also have:
- A dark-colored discoloration (red, maroon, or purple-black) under all or part of the affected nail
- Tenderness and swelling of the suggestion of the affected finger or toe
Diagnosis
If you had a severe blow to a finger or toe, either look for instant medical attention from your medical professional or go to an emergency clinic. You ought to do this in case you have broken bones or serious damage to the nail bed and/or surrounding tissues.
Your physician will examine your nail. You’ll probably also have an X-ray required to see if you have a bone fracture or other injury.
Treatment for Bruise Under Toenails that Won’t Go Away
A painless and little subungual hematoma usually doesn’t require treatment. However, the pressure generated by pooled blood under the nail can be very agonizing.
To eliminate the pain, your medical professional might perform decompression, likewise called trephination, which enables the underlying blood to drain pipes, removing pressure and pain to the area.
Your physician might numb the impacted finger or toe with a nerve block and use one of the following decompression approaches:
Cautery. The physician uses a heated wire (electrocautery device) or a carbon laser to burn a hole or holes. The lively idea of the wire is cooled by contact with the hematoma, which avoids injury to the nail bed. This is a quick and pain-free procedure.
Needle. The medical professional uses a needle to make a hole in the nail.
After the treatment, your medical professional will bandage your nail. You will require to keep the finger or toe bandaged and elevated — and may also need to utilize cold compresses– during the first 12 hours after decompression. In some cases, your medical professional may suggest you use a splint for as long as three days till the tenderness subsides.
The main problem connected with decompression is a small danger of infection in the residual hematoma.
If you have bleeding under a large area of the nail surface area, the nail bed might be injured. In this case, your doctor may need to eliminate the entire nail and usage stitches to repair the nail bed.
How to Recover
Unless the area of bleeding is tiny, an afflicted nail will generally fall off by itself after numerous weeks because the pooled blood has separated it from its bed.
A new fingernail can grow back in just eight weeks. A new toenail might not completely grow back for about six months. If there has been an injury to the nail bed and/or surrounding tissues, the new nail might take longer to grow.
Even with the best repair, there is still a possibility that the new nail might grow back and not look normal. See your medical professional if you notice any problems with the nail as it recovers and grows again.
Not long ago, I played football in the cold and hit the ball very hard on the upper part of the leg, that is, with my fingers (I didn’t feel any pain). Well, I saw a bruise on my leg that evening,I did not give it any attention and in 2 months a new nail came out and cauterization and digestion were not needed!)