Onychomycosis: a 3-year clinicomycologic hospital-based study.

BACKGROUND Despite onychomycosis being an established entity, only a few studies are available from the Indian subcontinent. The authors investigated the comprehensive pattern of the condition. AIM To investigate the epidemiologic, clinical, and mycologic factors associated with onychomycosis in 50 patients using a prospective study design. METHODS Fifty patients with potassium hydroxide-positive tests were evaluated according to a predetermined protocal recording details of epidemiologic, clinical, and mycologic characteristics. The collected data were analyzed to determine the correlation of various parameters. RESULTS Distal and lateral subungual onychomycosis, total dystrophic onychomycosis, and superficial white onychomycosis variants of onychomycosis were identified, mostly in men 21-30 years of age (mean age, 34.5 years). Epidemiologic characteristics were instrumental to either initiate, perpetuate, or disseminate the disease process. Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes were the main causative dermatophytes; yeasts and molds were less common. CONCLUSIONS Recognition of onychomycosis is less difficult providing the clinician is aware of the entity. Should the etiologic diagnosis be made, its eradication is desirable to surmount its implication in the society at large.