Paronychia associated with antiretroviral therapy.

We report six HIV patients who developed painful periungual inflammation of several nails during treatment with the antiretroviral drugs indinavir and lamivudine. The lesions appeared 2-12 months after starting treatment. The occurrence of paronychia in HIV patients has recently been reported in two groups of patients receiving either indinavir or lamivudine. Dermatologists should be aware of this recently reported and probably not uncommon side-effect of antiretroviral treatment in order to avoid an invasive approach to the nail lesions.