Day 4 – El Salvador Mission Trip 2011 - Lago Coatepeque Paronychia

We saw a 70 year old man who had injured his finger a couple of months ago cutting wood. He thought that maybe a splinter got in and had become infected. His finger looked like this.

This is a paronychial abscess.

You could see the bulge in the skin with yellow pus beneath it and increasing redness and swelling.


I numbed up the finger up, cut the abscess open and drained the pus out. He felt much better. After dressing the wound, I sent him home with some antibiotics.