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VerrucasVerrucas (planter warts) are warts on the soles of the feet. Verrucas do not stick up from the surface of the skin. Instead, the weight of the body pushing down on them makes them grow back into the skin, which can be painful. Verrucas often have a black dot in the centre, surrounded by a hard, white area. The dot is the blood supply to the wart and the white area is the skin of the wart that is closely packed together. Verrucas that grow in clusters are sometimes called mosaic warts. Warts are caused by different strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV). The virus is present in the skin cells of a wart, and can be passed on through close skin-to-skin contact. You are more likely to catch the infection if your skin is damaged, or if it is wet or in contact with rough surfaces. For example, public swimming pools are a common place to catch verrucas. People with scratches or cuts on the soles of their feet are especially vulnerable. You can also spread warts to other parts of your own body. For example, if you scratch or bite a wart, it can cause the wart to break up and bleed, making it easier for the virus to spread. People with a weak immune system (as a result of immune system diseases such as AIDS, or as a result of certain treatments such as chemotherapy) are more likely to catch warts. They may develop lots of warts that are particularly difficult to get rid of. Diagnosis Warts and verrucas are easy to recognise. Warts are usually raised growths with a hard uneven surface. A verruca may have been pushed in by the weight of your body and so appear as an area of very white skin on the sole of your foot, perhaps with a black dot in the centre. Treatment Most warts clear up without treatment, although this can take up to two years. There are treatment options available that may be able to clear warts faster, although some types of treatment can be painful, and there is no guarantee that the warts will not come back again. Treatment options depend on where the warts are and how many there are. Options include: Over-the-counter treatments - a variety of creams, gels, paints and medicated plasters are available from pharmacies. Most of these contain salicylic acid as their active ingredient. Salicylic acid and other wart treatments also destroy healthy skin, so it is important to protect the skin around the wart - use petroleum jelly or a corn plaster to cover it. Apply the medication following the instructions on the packet, but stop the treatment if your skin becomes sore. Rub the dead tissue off the top of the wart once a week with a pumice stone or emery board. It usually takes up to three months of continuous treatment for the wart to go completely. Chemical treatments - treatments containing chemicals such as formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde and podophyllin can be used to remove warts. These chemicals are poisonous to skin cells. They are dabbed onto warts to kill the skin cells there. These treatments are available on prescription. Cryotherapy - very cold liquid nitrogen is sprayed onto the wart to freeze and destroy the cells. A sore blister develops, followed by a scab, which falls off 7-10 days later. Treatment takes about 5-15 minutes and can be painful, so you might need a local anaesthetic beforehand. Cryotherapy treatment is usually carried out at hospital skin clinics or at your GP surgery. Large warts sometimes need to be frozen several times, a week or so apart, before they clear. Surgery to remove warts is carried out under general or local anaesthetic. Warts can be cut out of the skin (useful for a few, large warts), or the skin of the wart can be scraped off with a spoon-like instrument called a curette. The aim of surgical treatment is to remove all traces of the warts. Other surgical options are laser treatment, in which the wart is destroyed using a very precise laser beam, and electrocautery, in which the wart is burnt off using an electric current. A simple treatment can be tried using essential oils of Lemon and Tea Tree. Local treatment can be effective but if the sufferer has a lot of verrucas then try massage in the form of long stokes up the leg from the ankle to the thigh with oils of Geranium, Grapefruit, Juniper and Rosemary diluted in carrier oil. |
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