What Are Clubbed Fingers and Clubbed Nails?

Family Medicine, Primary Care Roots Community Health Center, Hippo Education, Kameda Medical Center

Supervised by Kenji Taylor, MD

Clubbed fingers/clubbed nails describe a condition where the fingernails become curved from the front to the back. In essence, they start to look like "clubs".

Explanation

Clubbing finger/nails happens when the space between your nail and bone thicken. This thickening leads to your fingertips looking rounded and enlarged like clubs. You may notice subtle changes in the shape of the nails that can happen over the course of weeks. Clubbing is not an actual disease, rather something that happens as a result of several underlying diseases. Since clubbing is associated with a host of different diseases like lung disease or heart disease, please consult a medical professional for further discussion.

(References)

Martinez-Lavin M. Exploring the cause of the most ancient clinical sign of medicine: finger clubbing. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2007 Jun;36(6):380-5. doi: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2006.11.004. Epub 2007 Feb 5. PMID: 17276498.

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