Acute paronychia

• Usually result from minor trauma of the skin around the fingernail such as biting, manicures, picking a hangnail or finger sucking.
• Staphylococcus aureus is the most common infecting organism. However other mouth flora such as Streptococcus and Pseudomonas species, gram-negative bacteria, and anaerobic bacteria can also be a cause.
• Recommended treatement consists of incision and drainage and placing the patient on  amoxicillin /  clavulanic acid or clindamycin to cover all the organisms noted above.