Warts Treatment

Warts treatment

Often multiple, preferably on the hands and on the soles of the feet. Even taking a few precautions like that of wearing plastic tap on the edge of pools, it rarely escapes these unsightly growths. Whatever the treatment used, it does not completely eliminate the virus. Once cured the wart, the virus remains in the skin and can be reactivated. It is the immune system that keeps it under control. One should never attempt to remove a wart with a sharp instrument like a razor blade or a knife: The wart may then become infected, bleed and grow, in addition to leaving a scar.

Warts Treatments

The treatment will depend on patient age, type of wart and its location. Most treatments require multiple sessions (including the plantar wart, more resistant to treatment). You may have to try several treatments before overcoming the problem. Recurrences are frequent. Several products containing salicylic acid (some also contain lactic acid) are sold without a prescription and can give good results, especially for common warts. For more resilient warts and plantar warts, more powerful treatments are suggested:

A solution more concentrated of salicylic acid (40%) may be necessary. We find over the counter in pharmacies.
The doctor may also remove the wart with liquid nitrogen deposited directly on the wart. This is called cryotherapy treatment, since it causes the peeling of the wart by cold (-196 ° C). Nitrogen is allowed to act for 30 to 60 seconds. The product destroys both the wart and the virus, but then a blister appears, and the procedure is painful. Usually, several sessions (two or three weeks apart) are necessary to remove the wart permanently. It is possible to make this process less painful by applying a local anesthetic one hour before surgery. Note also that this treatment may depigment the skin.
Another method is to destroy the wart laser. This technique causes no bleeding, but recovery is sometimes long and often leaves a scar. It is therefore a last resort.
After practicing local anesthesia, the doctor may make an incision and remove the wart or destroyed by electrocoagulation. These two minor procedures must be performed carefully to avoid scarring.
Finally, even in intractable cases or in people whose immunity is weak, it is possible to inject interferon into the wart. Interferons are substances that fight against viral infections.
In severe cases, the procedure is sometimes the injection of bleomycin, a substance that prevents cells from multiplying. This method is suitable for all types of warts, but it remains unpopular because of the pain it causes.

Cryotherapy of warts or wart with liquid nitrogen and dry ice

Cryotherapy by applying liquid nitrogen (- 196 ° C) or dry ice (-79 ° C) on the warts is to freeze the wart.It takes almost 3 weeks to gradually destroy the wart. For very large size or in relief warts (including plantar warts), it is often used a scalpel blade to diminish the relief. There are sprays of dimethyl propane available without prescription in pharmacies (-57 ° C). The temperature obtained does not seem low enough to ensure effectiveness. These preparations of salicylic acid with or without lactic acid are applied daily to warts after scratching the wart with a disposable tool (nail file card for example) that serve only to that purpose (because of the risk of transmission of warts!).

Warts treatment pictures

Other treatment against warts

There are many other treatments for warts, the choice is made by the doctor, depending on the number, type and location of warts:

Application of liquid nitrogen or dry ice to freeze the wart
Excision of the wart with a scalpel or electrocautery
Spray warts using a laser called ablative CO2 laser
...applied to toxicants warts: podophyllotoxin, 5FU, retinoic acid, trichloroacetic acid ...
Injection of bleomycin,must be produced with care by a physician because of risk of skin necrosis.