A young, athletic patient presented to my Grapevine, Texas office complaining of a painful, funky looking toenail. She thought she has a little fungus or ingrown toenail starting. Turned out to be much more!
The toenail had a firm nodule that was palpable in the corner of the nail bed. As I suspected, an X-ray revealed a small benign bone tumor was growing out of the tip of her toe. This is what was causing her toenail to be deformed and painful!
Luckily these tumors are usually an osteochondroma, which is a benign growth. These are more just annoying but they do have a high recurrence rate.
Bye bye bone tumor!
The purpose of this case study is to remind you to not just assume your toenail troubles are no big deal! Get any abnormal changes in the look and feel of your toenails checked out!
