PECULIARITIES OF ONYCHOMYCOSIS COURSE AND TREATMENT AT PRESENT
The article provides an overview of current data from the scientific literature on the epidemiological features of onychomycosis at present, including changes in the spectrum of pathogens, the nature of the course and clinical manifestations of fungal nail lesions. Current data on the characteristic manifestation of onychomycosis point out the importance of age factor: age-related changes in old population are associated with involutional processes in the skin and its appendages, decreased growth rate of nails, angiopathy, etc. This review demonstrated the relationship between chronic dermatoses and onychomycosis. In chronic dermatoses, including psoriasis, eczema, etc., there are fungal lesions of the nail plates, which cause not only the progression of trophic disorders, increased dryness of the skin and violation of its integrity, but also sensitization of the patient. Onychomycosis complicates the course of chronic dermatoses. In the absence of onychomycosis treatment there is a significant risk of complete destruction of the nail plates with further involvement of the adjacent skin in the pathological process and infection spreading. Three components of effective therapy are identified: accurate diagnosis, correctly selected therapy and compliance. This article also provides the brief description of existing treatment methods of onychomycosis ranging from monotherapy with systemic antifungals to the combined use of systemic and topical antifungals, as well as the use of non-medicinal methods, and in particular methods of ultraphonophoresis, electrophoresis and photodynamics.