Prognostic Factors in Onychomycosis Treatment

Shari R Lipner and Richard K

Abstract

Onychomycosis is a common fungal disease of the nail unit with a prevalence of 10% to 12% in the United States. Despite therapeutic innovations in the last few decades, as many as 20-25% of patients do not achieve a complete cure, and 10-53% are reported to relapse after successful treatment. Some of the factors associated with a poor response to onychomycosis have been well studied. They include patient characteristics and morbidities, nail characteristics, and the infecting organism. Therefore, the goal of therapy is to identify these specific prognostic features for each patient and devise an appropriate treatment plan that will allow for the best chance for cure. Scoring systems may be helpful for grading the severity of onychomycosis and predicting the therapeutic outcome.