I had this issue with the toe nails on my left foot (where my RSD started). I had to have the nail removed because it was causing more damage and infection the way that it was. I was worried about it but the bottom line was that the damage it was causing was far worse trauma than having the nail removed. It was a relatively painless process (at least compared to the RSD) and while I needed to be careful with it for a while until the nail grew back in I didn't have any complications from the procedure.