A comparison of pediatric nail disorders between the years with and without the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic between 2020 to 2022 considerably impacted public health in China. Nail disorders account for the majority of pediatric dermatology. We investigated outpatient nail disease diagnosed at the dermatology clinic to determine the effect of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic on these patients. We gathered information from the outpatient department of the Dermatology clinic at Children’s Hospital of Soochow University from January 2018 to December 2022. We distinguish between pre-epidemic (January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019) and post-epidemic (January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022). 8666 outpatients were included in the pre-epidemic group and 13,885 were included in the post-epidemic group. The percentage of outpatient nail disorders in the top 7 slightly differs from 2018 to 2022, while the first place is always Paronychia. The percentage of nail dystrophy, onycholysis, and onychomadesis decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic years and the percentage of paronychia, onychomycosis, longitudinal melanonychia, and psychosomatic nail disorders increased during the COVID-19 pandemic years. Although the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on outpatients in the dermatology department was minimal, the spectrum of nail disorders was affected. A significant increase in infectious and psychosomatic nail disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic was an important finding in this study. Knowing the pattern of nail diseases may help hospitals to better prepare for future pandemics.