Ainhum.
Describe ainhum.
Ainhum is a disease of the African race, met with chiefly in Brazil, the West Indies, and Africa, and consists of a slow but gradual linear strangulation of one or more of the toes, especially the smallest, resulting, eventually, in spontaneous amputation. The affected toes themselves undergo fatty degeneration, often with increase in size, and are, when strangulation is well advanced, considerably misshapen. The nature of the disease is obscure.
Treatment consists, in the early stages, of incision through the constricting band; when the disease is well advanced, amputation is the sole recourse.