Unilateral Beau's lines associated with a fingertip crushing injury

Beau's lines are transverse depressions or ridgings of the nail surface that are the result of the temporary arrest of nail matrix formation. They are caused by systemic diseases, local trauma, drugs, and infection. Generally, Beau's lines after a fingertip injury occur on only the affected finger, not on the unilateral extremity. In this report, we present the case of a 36-year-old man who developed transverse ridgings in the nail plates of all five fingers of the affected extremity after a fingertip (thumb) crushing injury. During the follow up, the growth rate of affected fingernails was normal. The transverse ridgings advanced with the linear growth of the nails and eventually disappeared. To the best of our knowledge, no association between unilateral Beau's lines and fingertip injury has been reported in the English literature.