Knuckle pads associated with clubbed fingers.

The patient was a 37-year-old male who visited us for the chief complaints of severely keratinized elastic soft nodules with normal skin color or slightly glossy pale brown color at the distal interphalangeal joints of the bilateral second, third, fourth and fifth fingers associated with bilateral clubbed fingers. The nodules were histopathologically diagnosed as knuckle pads. Clubbed fingers were also noted, but no cardiopulmonary disorder was observed. Knuckle pads are circumscribed fibromatous thickenings of the skin overlying the finger joints. External factors are considered to be the cause, but many cases may be idiopathic such as this case. Many patients with clubbed fingers have underlying cardiopulmonary disorders, and idiopathic development, such as in this case, does not frequently occur. Our patient had the complications of knuckle pads and clubbed fingers, which has not previously been reported.