Warts Removal

Warts can be ugly and deeply embarrassing for those who get in on their face, body or genital areas. These are basically benign tumour like non-cancerous eruptions on the skin triggered by the human papillpma virus. It attacks the outer layers of the skin and it can be contagious. Sharing of towels or using towels in hotels can be attributed as risk factors contributing to the development of warts.

Causes and symptoms:

Some wart virus actually spread through sexual intercourse and therefore dermatological intervention is necessary at the earliest. If unchecked, they can cause pain, itching and even bleeding in some cases. Genital warts in women may serve as a catalyst and cause cervical cancer. If warts occur on hands, genitals or on the soles of the feet, they can impair movement for a certain period of time.

Common Warts:

Usually one tone darker than the resent skin colour, these warts appear usually on the fingers and toes and can be contagious i.e. spreading through touching, biting of nails.

Planar:

Warts appearing on the soles of the feet and usually in cauliflower shape, these can be quite painful.

Flat:

Pinkish, yellowish or brownish in colour these warts usually appear on face, thighs and arms. They usually do not cause much pain or discomfort.

Filiform:

These rapidly growing warts can be very embarrassing as they appear erupt near the mouth, nose, skin and bear the same colour as your skin.

Periungual:

Appearing below the toenails and fingernails, these periungual warts can be very painful.

Treatment

It takes a few weeks or months and in some cases warts disappear on their own after a few years. Physical examination or biopsy is needed to diagnose the kind of warts.

Cantharidin:

The affected area of skin is painted with a cantharidin solution and left to dry for 5-7 days. Thereafter, the dead wart is scrapped away from the surface of the skin.

Cryotherapy:

Abnormal skin cells constituting the warts and surrounding areas are treated by freezing the localized area to deaden the irritating nerves. Quite effective in treatment of skin cancers as well as Cryotherapy is painless, non-invasive, and non-intrusive.

Curretage and Electrosurgery:

Curettage involves removal of the warts using a spoon type surgical tool that scrapes out the wart. Electrosurgery involves removal of the removal of the wart by burning the skin through electrical impulses transmitted by the needle used for electrotherapy. Heat and electric charge combined together end up burning the wart tissue. Due care is taken to apply a local anaesthetic to avoid damage to the surrounding areas.

Laser treatment:

Layer by layer removal of stubborn warts is done by laser treatment. Blood supply to the warts is cut off through by lasers without causing any injury, wound or scar. The heat emanating from the lasers is sufficient to treat complicated warts in one session in 80% of cases; some warts may take another one or two sessions for removal.

Chemical peel:

Special chemicals like Salicyclic acid, glycolic acid, tretinion are applied as peeling medicines to deaden the wart tissues over a period of several days. These chemicals are selected based on their proven ability to offer relief in wart related complications and these chemicals are also used in various skin ointments.

Excision:

Surgical removal of the wart in a clinical environment through painless procedure is referred as excision and is quite low cost and popular.

Immunotherapy:

Diphenylcyclopropenone is known to be quite effective in dermatological treatment and is applied on stubborn warts to remove them from the surface of the skin. These injections are known to improve the body’s ability to fight skin diseases.

Surgery:

Performed after administering local anaesthesia, it involves cutting off the wart with a surgical instrument and then burning the wart tissue through electrical impulses. It can be painful, might cause scarring, pain or discomfort but the results are permanent in treating stubborn scars that do not respond to other kinds of treatment.

As with all skin diseases, precautions need to be taken to avoid relapse in the form of getting regular and timely dermatological intervention from the best dermatologist in Delhi as soon as they re-occur. Wash your hands quickly if you meet someone with warts problem and avoid scrapping or itching to prevent it from aggravating. Pricking for temporary relief can worsen the condition of the wart. Bandaging the area affected the wart and keeping your hands and feet dry to prevent the spread of the wart through moisture is highly advisable. Warts in adults do not go easily and the treatment lasts for an extended period of time and it should run its full course to avoid relapse of the complication.