As the formation is located in the foot, this can cause painful sensations and damage to the wart itself. For these reasons, the spine should be treated, although there is a small chance that the plantar wart will go away by itself without serious treatment.
Unfortunately, getting rid of a wart is still not easy, so it is recommended to consult a dermatologist to reduce the risk of infecting others, as well as to shorten the time it takes to treat the disease. The use of exclusively popular remedies and independent attempts to get rid of the tumor are undesirable. The plantar wart has a deep root, which is almost impossible to remove on its own, so relapses occur. Folk remedies often cause severe damage to the surrounding tissue, which can lead to an enlarged area of injury and unpleasant consequences in the form of burns and scarring.
Symptoms
If you suspect the appearance of a neoplasm, you should not only know what a plantar wart looks like in the photo, but also remember that the disease has characteristic symptoms:
- palpable itching at the training site;
- the size of the warts is from a few millimeters to 2 centimeters;
- unlike corns, a wart is painful;
- bleeding when damaged;
- pain when walking.
If you experience similar symptoms, see your doctor right away. It's easier to prevent an illness than to deal with the consequences.
Causes of plantar warts
A plantar wart occurs when the foot is affected by human papillomavirus (HPV). The main route of transmission is contact, the infection occurs through common objects or directly from person to person. The favorable environment is hot and humid, so it is important to be careful when visiting the spa, swimming pool, sauna and gym.
Weakened immunity can also serve as a cause of occurrence, since in a normal state the human papillomavirus does not show visible manifestations.
This type of wart can also occur with epidermal microtrauma, dry skin, wearing tight and uncomfortable shoes, hyperhidrosis. Furthermore, the causes of warts on the legs can be diseases that lead to deformity of the feet - joint arthritis, osteoarthritis, flat feet, as well as diseases that lead to a violation of the integrity of the skin of the feet: diabetes mellitus, varicose veins. It must be remembered that frequent stress can indirectly affect the onset of this disease.
HPV can be acquired by accident during a normal walk with bare feet on an infected surface; the virus can live up to several months without an immediate carrier. After entering the body, it can take several days or even weeks, so it is not always possible to know the exact time of the infection.
Diagnosis
To determine how to treat plantar warts, a dermatologist conducts a series of studies:
- general inspection;
- dermoscopy;
- PCR diagnosis;
- histological examination.
How to cure plantar warts
When a plantar wart appears, the question of how to cure this neoplasm arises. When growths are troublesome and spread quickly, the best solution is to consult a dermatologist as soon as possible, who will select the most suitable treatment option. There are several ways to solve this problem.
The most radical of them is operative: the wart and its roots are surgically removed. This method is not the most effective as the roots of the neoplasm are located in the deep layers of the skin. In some cases, it is not possible to completely remove them.
Wart removal can be performed with laser and electrocautery, in addition to cryotherapy.
In addition to removal in medical institutions, plantar warts can be removed with less radical methods such as ointments, solutions, special plasters, as well as folk remedies. These remedies to remove plantar warts have several advantages and disadvantages, the main one being the long treatment time.
Removal of plantar warts
One of the most common ways to remove plantar warts is to have them removed at specialist hospitals. The dermatologist at the consultation must provide detailed information on how to get rid of plantar warts and, based on the test results, choose the most appropriate method. Although thorns are difficult to cure, there is no specific means of removal, all suitable methods are used to treat other types of warts. Plantar warts can be treated on an outpatient basis, but your doctor may prescribe medication to help remove them at home.
Surgical removal of warts
Surgery is used along with other treatments to remove warts. The wart is scraped off with a special scalpel under local anesthesia. After this procedure, if the plantar wart is significant, sutures are applied under the skin, which are removed in one to two weeks. The wound site is treated with a disinfectant solution and an aseptic dressing is applied. There is usually a small scar at the removal site.
The difficulty with this method is that during the operation the doctor must remove all the roots, otherwise the plantar wart will appear again. Therefore, this method is used today only if all other treatment methods have proved ineffective.
Removal with liquid nitrogen
Removal with liquid nitrogen involves exposing the neoplasm to extremely low temperatures, which is the most common, modern and fastest way to treat a plantar wart.
The method is based on freezing the formation tissue itself. In fact, inside the wart cells, under the influence of an extremely low temperature of –196 degrees Celsius, ruptures occur, leading to the death of the wart.
Cryodestruction is performed manually or by hardware. If the wart is large or the procedure is performed on a child, it is necessary to use local anesthesia, usually novocaine.
Exposure time directly to liquid nitrogen is up to 30 seconds. After the first moxibustion, the physician should take a break to assess the effectiveness of the effect and the need for repeated moxibustion.
After freezing, a blister with a colorless or reddish liquid forms at the site of the wart, which indicates the beginning of the inflammatory process. This is a normal reaction to the moxibustion procedure.
Cryodestruction is considered painless, but in the treatment of plantar warts, it must be repeated several times to achieve the final effect. Once the wart falls off, no scar remains.
The advantages of removing liquid nitrogen are:
- freezing rules out the spread of the disease to the nearest skin;
- lack of special training;
- short duration of the procedure;
- the risks of developing scars or scars are minimal.
The disadvantages of cryodestruction of plantar warts are:
- need for a repeated course with a large area of the lesion or because of the size of the wart;
- human factor - the professionalism of the physician who performs this procedure is a guarantee of success. The physician must correctly assess the time and degree of exposure to nitrogen in the tissues, otherwise, burns may occur;
- the discomfort that bladder swelling brings and the need to treat it are also considered disadvantages of the method.
In general, evaluations about the treatment of plantar warts with the method of moxibustion with liquid nitrogen are positive, as it is the simplest, most effective and accessible way.
laser removal
Laser removal is considered to be one of the most effective and safest techniques. After laser treatment, the wart is no longer infectious. The procedure itself is painless; a special nozzle is built into the laser, which cools the exposure site. In addition, one or more analgesic injections are given before the operation. The patient usually feels a slight tingling sensation during the procedure. After the removal of the neoplasm, there are no traces left, as the laser directly burns the diseased tissue. The laser method allows maximum control of the exposure depth, which is individual in each case. Therefore, even with deep tissue damage, it is possible to completely remove the roots, which means that wart regrowth can be prevented.
The operation takes place under sterile conditions, there is no direct contact with the skin or wart, and the operation takes just a few minutes. The positive results of laser plantar wart removal also make this method the most attractive.
The main disadvantage of laser plantar wart removal is the high cost, which usually includes medical consultation, anesthesia and the operation itself. Furthermore, after removal, the wound heals for a long time and requires hygiene.
Treatment of plantar warts
Before treating a plantar wart, you need to make sure the diagnosis is correct and then proceed directly to procedures. In addition to surgery, your doctor may prescribe immunotherapy and topical medications.
The need for immunotherapy, as a rule, is justified, since the disease is caused by a virus that, when the organism is weakened, is in active development. Local immunotherapeutic agents directly target the virus in two ways. In the first case, the drug stimulates the immune system, and in the second, an antigen is injected into the wart's body, which also activates the immune system so that the wart disappears more quickly.
Treating a plantar wart takes a long time, it is important not to forget to strengthen the immune system and observe hygiene. If you don't apply removal and treatment, the wart can go away on its own for over a year, while one person is a source of infection for everyone around them. You should carefully consider this unpleasant condition and consult a dermatologist, who will surely tell you how and how to treat a plantar wart.
The treatment of a plantar wart directly depends on complying with all hygiene standards and medical prescriptions, educational daily treatment is a guarantee of a successful recovery.
home treatment
Any new skin formations cannot be ignored as the strain of cancer is growing around the world. Don't skip consulting a specialist, they can prescribe a plantar wart treatment at home. In this case, special solutions, ointments and a dressing for warts are usually prescribed.
Ointments are one of the mildest treatment methods as they work on the wart itself and as a result it gradually disappears and disappears. The following types of ointments are used in the treatment:
- antiviral ointment;
- acid-based ointment;
- various herbal ointments.
Most of the time, salicylic acid ointments and oxolinic ointments are prescribed. Any type of ointment is spread on the wart several times a day, according to instructions. When treating a plantar wart, before applying the medicine, it must be previously sprayed in warm water. It is advisable to apply any ointment at night so that you do not have to step into the formation and wash off the ointment.
To get rid of plantar warts at home, you can use a salicylic acid patch. This product has low cost and proven effectiveness. Plaster is sold without a prescription in pharmacies, the principle of its use is very simple - a wart is glued with a piece of plaster and an ordinary medical plaster is fixed on top. You need to change the patch at regular intervals. It can take about two weeks to remove a small wart, but you can't leave the wart for long without a patch. As the treatment progresses, the wart area shrinks, after 12 hours it is covered with a scab, which then disappears. After successful healing, a small pink spot remains on the skin, which should disappear completely over time.
Care must be taken when applying the patch - when applying, you must avoid healthy areas of skin, otherwise severe irritation may occur. There are contraindications to using this method of wart removal, so the doctor must make the decision on patch appointment.
Another way to treat plantar warts at home is hyperthermia. Feet affected by warts are immersed in the hottest water possible. These procedures are repeated several times. In some cases, hyperthermia shows a positive effect. The procedure's mechanism is based on the stimulation of small blood vessels in the legs and the activation of local immunity.
At home, you can do a treatment at low temperatures, similar to removing warts with liquid nitrogen. To do this, you can use special applicator pens or sprays. As with cryodestruction, multiple applications may be required.
Treatment with folk remedies
Although modern medicines are much more effective and with their help the process of removing plantar warts is faster, the effectiveness of treatment with folk remedies cannot be denied. Traditional medicine has accumulated vast experience in combating warts and some methods remain effective.
- Celandine juice is one of the most popular ways to remove thorns. You can use the juice of a fresh plant or buy a celandine collection at the pharmacy, which contains, in addition to celandine juice, other herbal extracts. The juice is applied once or twice a day to the affected area.
- Acetic acid, along with several additional agents, is also used to remove warts. In addition to acid, onions and flour are used. You can drip the acid itself directly onto the affected area, but this method is quite dangerous due to the high risk of severe burns.
- Apple Vinegar: A cotton swab soaked in solution (it is important not to use undiluted vinegar) is applied to the affected area of the skin, the skin area is preliminarily treated with an abrasive nail file.
- Garlic is another popular remedy for the treatment of warts. The formation should be rubbed with raw garlic until it completely disappears, but this method can be used for no more than three weeks.
- Banana peel is applied with the inside to the affected area of the skin, it is believed that it can tear off the wart.
To locate the injury site and not touch adjacent tissue, a piece of tape can be used. A hole the size of the neoplasm is made, and the surrounding healthy skin remains intact. This prevents burns and other injuries.
plantar wart in child
With age, a person develops immunity to HPV, so children and young people are more susceptible to this infection. Most of the time, the disease affects children over the age of five. Your doctor will help you recognize a plantar wart in a child, as in some cases it can look like an old corn.
Although plantar warts in a child disappear on their own, one should not ignore their treatment, it is also worth remembering the possibility of infecting the whole family and the people around them. A plantar wart in a child almost always causes severe painful discomfort when walking, so it requires immediate treatment and a visit to the doctor. Our service contains proven pediatric dermatologists and ratings from which you can choose a good specialist for your child.
Since children are sensitive to pain, it is difficult to find therapy. To start with, you should use various ointments - they are affordable, easy to use and effective. Folk remedies are also widely used, and there is no doubt about the safety of this.
Effective methods to remove plantar warts in children are liquid nitrogen and laser removal. Removing warts using these methods is one of the most radical methods. They are used when solutions and ointments do not have the desired effect.
After the cure, it is important not to forget the prevention of plantar warts in children. This strengthens the immune system, performs careful hygiene, and wears comfortable, appropriate shoes. It should be remembered that the risk of infection is especially high in public places and someone else's, so you need to be careful that your child does not walk around in someone else's shoes or barefoot. Any item that has come into direct contact with the formation must be thoroughly washed at a high temperature. All of these actions will help prevent the virus from developing in the future.
Danger
If the plantar wart removal procedure is not carried out in time, this can lead to serious consequences, such as:
- the appearance of warts on other areas of the skin;
- skin cancer.
Doctors strongly advise against self-medication - cutting, piercing or cauterizing the warts will make the situation worse and lead to the formation of new warts.
Group of risk
The risk group is:
- people with hormonal disorders in the body;
- HIV infected.
Prophylaxis
For the prevention of plantar warts, patients are advised to:
- strengthen immunity;
- eat more foods rich in vitamins;
- properly care for the skin of the feet;
- do not wear tight shoes, shoes made of synthetic materials;
- in public places (changing rooms, showers) do not walk barefoot.