Plantar Wart Removal

Plantar wart treatment can sometimes be difficult.  While plantar warts do not require treatment, there is often a desire to treat them because they are unsightly,  and they can often cause pain when walking.   If you treat them early enough you can probably prevent them from spreading, and you will increase your odds of getting rid of them completely.

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If you are experiencing stubborn plantar warts, and home treatment does not help, your doctor may suggest one of the following procedures:

• Freezing (cryotherapy or treatment with liquid nitrogen). Your doctor can with liquid nitrogen spray, freeze and destroy your wart.  This procedure can be painful and is not as effective as most think, likely needing a second treatment. The nitrogen causes blister to form around the wart and the dead tissue falls off after a week or two and this process is repeated until the wart is gone. Freezing treatment can be painful, as a rule, not for small children.
• Cantharidin. Your doctor may use cantharidin – a substance extracted from the blister beetle – on your plantar warts. Typically, the extract in combination with salicylic acid, is applied to the wart and covered with a bandage. Application is painless, but the resulting blister can be uncomfortable. You then go back to the doctor in about a week and he will cut off the dead skin.
• Minor surgery. To this end, the warts should be removed or destroyed with a long, electric needle in a process called electrodesiccation and curettage. This treatment is effective, but can leave a scar, especially if not done correctly. Your doctor will typically numb the skin before the procedure.
• Laser surgery. Doctors can remove different types of warts with lasers. Laser surgery is expensive and painful and may take several sessions for the treatment of warts.
• Immunotherapy. This therapy is aimed at using your body to fight and treat the warts naturally. This can be done by our doctor giving your warts an injection of interferon, a drug that stimulates the immune system to reject warts instinct.
• Imiquimod (Aldara). This cream recipe is an immunotherapy drug that promotes your body to release your immune systems proteins called (cytokines) to deal with warts.
• Bleomycin (Blenoxane). In severe cases, which were not offset with other drugs, your doctor may give each wart an injection with a medication called bleomycin, which kills the virus. This medication is also given systemically in high doses to treat certain types of cancer. Injections for the treatment of warts can be painful. Bleomycin can not be used if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have circulatory problems.

You are going to have to treat your warts, in my opinion it’s best to treat them before a doctor has to get involved, otherwise you could be looking at excessive costs thru your insurance company.