Overview of hardware methods of treatment of onychomycosis (literature review)

Abstract

Introduction. Treatment of fungal infection of nail plates is associated with a number of difficulties, such as high expectations, low patient compliance to long-term therapy, irrational selection of antifungal drugs and, as a consequence, the development of resistance. Currently, there are many hardware methods of treating onychomycosis, which can significantly accelerate recovery and increase the effectiveness of therapy. Discussion. The article describes such methods of physiotherapeutic treatment of fungal nail infection as laser technology, low-temperature plasma, photodynamic therapy, iontophoresis, ultrasound, ultratonotherapy. Some of them contribute directly to the elimination of the mycotic agent from the affected tissues; others allow improving the process of introducing antifungal drugs into the thickness of the nail plate and nail bed. Laser technologies make it possible to combine these pathogenetically significant mechanisms of influence on the disease, which considerably expands the possibility of their use.Conclusions. At the present, despite the wide variety of methods and treatment regimens for onychomycosis, hardware techniques are a promising field for further research. Based on the analysis of domestic and foreign literature, there is no method, which we can use as monotherapy. However, a combination of drug therapy and hardware methods of treatment can give successful results both in terms of therapeutic efficacy and in terms of anti-relapse expectations. It is necessary to develop precise protocols for the use of physiotherapeutic techniques in order to increase the effectiveness of the management of patients suffering from fungal infection of the nail plates.