large lump on my sisters thumb filled with "puss"

[JackieG414]

My sister works construction by trade. about 8 years ago she had an accident with a nail gun and nailed through her thumb. about a month later we started to notice then a small lump around the area the nail was. for the past 8 years the lump has grown to the size of another thumb. she had seen doctors and they told her it was mostly likely scar tissue and if it bothered her to much they could remove it. well after 8 years of this thing getting bigger and bigger on her thumb a small white sore spot showed up on it she said it looked like a little blister so she popped it. i am estimating a 1/4 of a cup of "puss"( but thicker than what i think of puss being) with little balls of hard stuff in it came out she still has two spots that are hard and a lot of loose skin on her thumb which keeps getting air in it and BTW it makes a funky sound when you try to squeeze the air out. my sister is 43 and a hard headed women when comes to seeing a doctor i need some ideas of what it could be so maybe i can convince her to go see a doctor.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
It is a little hard to beielve that there was pus in there for 8 years without it causing any other symptoms except a swelling. It could have been a tubercular abscess or even a ganglion or a cyst. If this is not properly excised it will recur. Also, the material that is coming out needs to be cultured and examined. It could also be cancerous. It would be very unwise on the art of your sister to not consult a doctor now. Left like this infection could erode the thumb totally. It may cost her her job. It is difficult to comment beyond this at this stage.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!

[LivingInHope]

Well, if it was pus, that would indicate infection.  I would also hope they would rule out cancer.  There was a guy who had an accident where he got pavement in his head.  He had a sore that wouldn't heal.  I thought he should go to the dermatologist, as a sore that doesn't heal can indicate cancer.  He wasn't in any hurry to get it checked.  When he finally did, he had to have a pretty major skin graft after removal of cancer.