Title: splinter hemorrhage - Encyclopedia - NAILS Magazine
Headings: splinter hemorrhage
Encyclopedia
splinter hemorrhage
Injury Is the Most Common Cause
Indications of a Systemic Disorder
Other Possible Causes of Splinter Hemorrhages

Content: splinter hemorrhage - Encyclopedia - NAILS Magazine
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splinter hemorrhage
Splinter hemorrhages are tiny bleeding points in the nail bed and hyponychium of the nail unit. The nail bed is the skin under the nail, which begins where the moon (lunula) ends and the nail plate just begins to lift up from the skin underneath. At this point, there is a small, extremely narrow area that is slightly pink in color, which represents the hyponychium. Because of the anatomic structure of the nail bed (where it is arranged in longitudinal grooves and ridges), when there is a small amount of bleeding within one of these grooves, it is trapped by the overlying nail plate. Since the nail bed itself is linear in its construction, it assumes a straight line appearance and actually looks like a tiny splinter underneath the nail, hence the name splinter hemorrhage. Injury Is the Most Common Cause
In the overwhelming majority of cases, splinter hemorrhages are not due to any serious underlying systemic disorder or any skin disorder of the nail unit for that matter. Therefore in most situations, as the nail grows out, since the splinter hemorrhage is deposited on the under-surface of the nail plate, it will grow out with the nail and the nail bed over a period of time and consequently disappear completely, usually in a period of a few months. The most common cause of splinter hemorrhages is simple trauma or minor injury to a finger or toe, which results in minute amount of bleeding underneath the nail plate. There are other occasions, however, in which the splinter hemorrhage may be a sign of some abnormality. For example, even a fungus infection of the nail ( onychomycosis) may give rise to small splinter hemorrhages in the nail bed.