Chronic paronychia in which hair was a foreign body.

A patient who worked as a baker and a part-time barber had chronic paronychia. Biopsy revealed the presence of hair in the dermis of the nail fold. This is only the second case of chronic paronychia to be reported in which the dermis contained nonmicrobial exogenous material. Based on experimental work it has been previously suggested that the rounding out of the posterior nail fold in most paronychia is due to the body's reaction to the penetration of debris derived from Candida albicans. However, patients recalcitrant to therapy or those exposed to chemicals or particulate material deserve detailed histologic study.