What are Verrucas
Warts are benign skin growths caused by viral infection in the top layer of the skin or mucous membranes that can grow on almost any part of the body in a wide range of shapes and sizes.
Warts on the sole of the foot are called Verrucas, or plantar warts. Verrucas on feet are very common, being experienced by most people at some time during their lives. According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, children and teenagers tend to be more susceptible to warts than adults.
>> Check out how to recognize all 8 different types of Warts <<
What Causes Verrucas
Warts and verrucas are caused Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that can infect many parts of the body. There are over 100 types of HPV, generally classified by High-risk HPV that can cause cancer (eg. Cervical cancer), and Low-risk HPV that can cause warts.
The HPV virus penetrates through the skin, often enter through damaged skin (such as cut and crack) or skin areas that are under repetitive stress, causes the top layer of skin to grow rapidly and form a rough bump on the surface of the skin, resulting in a wart.
The HPV strain most often associated with verrucas are HPV subtypes-1,2,4,27 and 57.
What Does a Verruca Look Like
Verruca wart can be found as a single lesion or as a cluster that is grouped together and referred to as a mosaic wart. Sometimes there is a larger wart with surrounding smaller isolated warts and these are the so-called mother-daughter warts.
- A solitary wart is a single wart. It often increases in size and may eventually multiply, forming additional “satellite” warts.
- Mosaic warts are a cluster of several small warts growing closely together in one area. Mosaic warts are more difficult to treat than solitary warts
Verruca wart starts out as small lesions on the bottom of the foot that resembles a callus, and is usually rough with hard calluses around the painful wart. As the wart grows inward, you will start to notice the center of the wart has small pinpoint spots, these are the small capillaries that supply blood to the wart. Scraping the wart may cause bleeding because of these tiny blood vessels.
Below are some verrucas pictures that show what do verrucas look like.
Do Verrucas Hurt?
While warts are usually painless, Verrucas can be very painful because of their location, whereby the entire weight of the body presses against them when walking. Many Verrucas patients describe a sensation or feeling of walking on a pebble.
>> Prevention is better than to cure. Click and learn how to prevent verruccas. <<
How to Get Rid of Verrucas
Most warts do not need treatment and they may eventually go away. However, if verrucas on foot are left untreated, the verruca can grow in size and number, sometimes up to one inch in diameter. They can also spread and multiply into a cluster of warts by scratching, touching and bleeding.
Patients seek verruca removal treatment for a variety of reasons, including discomfort, cosmetic reason, or because they are prevented from doing sports and other activities of daily living.
So how to treat verrucas?
There are many different ways to get rid of verrucas, which can be classified into 3 general categories:
- Wart surgery and professional medical treatment
- Wart removal OTC product with salicylic acid, such as Wartrol.
- Homemade wart remover, like nail varnish as video below.
There is no single best way to get rid of verrucas and warts, as the treatment effectiveness vary based on wart size and sometimes the patient’s immune system, while verruca warts may be very resistant at times that requires multiple treatments over months.
If you have diabetes or poor blood circulation, do not try self-treatment for warts without consulting your doctors.
Getting Rid of Verrucas with Professional Verruca Treatment
The doctor and dermatologist will first examine the patient’s verruca on foot then recommend the verruca treatment approach, which normally starts with the least painful non-invasive topical treatment to be applied on the skin’ surface, such as:
- Cantharidin
Your doctor may treat verruca with Cantharidin, which is a substance extracted from the hemolymph of blister beetles. The extract is usually combined with salicylic acid, with the mixture was applied to the verruca wart and superposed on the bandage.
This medicine is injected into the wart at your doctor’s office. The first application of this method of procedure is usually painless during treatment, but it can potentially cause discomfort after the treatment when a blister is formed.
Well bandaged wounds can help minimize the discomfort and pain during the recovery process at home, with the doctor cuts away dead skin and get rid of verrucas about a week later.
This is a topical application which is available upon prescription. Repeat treatment is required in most cases.
- Retinoid cream
Retinoid is derived from Vitamin A, and is a prescription medicine that can stop a warts growth.
- Trichloroacetic Acid (TCA)
Trichloroacetic acid, a caustic acid that is used to destroy superficial skin, is one of the most popular treatments for warts; results are usually seen after just 1 or 2 treatments.
- Bichloroacetic Acid (BCA)
BCA kills warts by destroying the proteins in the cells. It is useful for warts on the palms and the soles of the feet. BCA also can destroy normal cells, which is why careful application is needed. A doctor applies BCA once a week.
- Podophyllin Resin
Podophyllin, a plant extract that is extremely caustic, is applied directly to the skin for removal of warts, and must be applied by a trained care giver at weekly intervals.
The resin must be washed off 4–6 hours after application, with use of a protective inert ointment for the surrounding skin is recommended. Podophyllin Resin is painted over the wart every 2-3 weeks until the wart is gone, but should not be used in pregnant patients.
- Immunotherapy
This involves application of a cream that can alter the immune response to destroy the virus causing the wart. With the use of medicine, this methodology will help to strength your immune system so as to repel the plantar warts. However the patient may be showing flu-like symptoms after the medicine has taken its effect in a few hours.
Because some of the substances used for immunotherapy are expensive, dangerous, or require specialized handling, such treatment is usually considered only after other methods have failed.
>> Click to check out actual video case studies and patients feedback on verruca treatment. <<
Verruca Surgery
If the verruca wart on feet does not respond to topical treatment after four to six weeks, the doctors may recommend the more aggressive and invasive wart surgery approach to get rid of verrucas.
While this verrucas removal method is more expensive and may cause scar deformities, surgery is one of the treatment method that will get rid of verrucas fast. The surgical procedures include:
- Curettage
Curettage is a form of surgical verruca wart treatment that involves incising the verruca from the skin using a sharp knife or a small, spoon-shaped tool. It is often done together with electrosurgery, where warts are burned or cauterized using an electrical current.
- Electrocautery
Electrocautery removes verruca by burning them with a low-voltage electrified probe. The purpose of using electricity to heat tissue is to prevent or stop bleeding after an injury or during surgery, remove abnormal tissue growth, and prevent the possibility of infection.
- Cryotherapy
Your doctor can freeze your veruccas at the doctor’s office using an extremely cold liquid nitrogen at very low subzero temperatures, or using tools like Verruca Freeze Cryosurgery Kits.
During the process to freeze veruccas, the doctor sprays liquid nitrogen on the affected area, with the patients will experience pain that will last for about 5-10 minutes. This turns the verucca into a blister which eventually falls off.
Cryotherapy method removes the verruca with little scaring, but it can be painful and may require multiple treatments to effectively freeze the verruca off.
- Interferon Injection
This is a treatment in which your doctor injects a chemical called interferon directly into the veruccas.
- Laser Therapy
An effective method to get rid of stubborn warts by burning off the verucca with concentrated beam of light. Consequently, the affected tissue dies and the wart disappears, but this method can be painful and cause scarring.
- Bleomycin
This medicine can be injected to remove stubborn warts, but may be painful and cause side effects like itching and rashes.
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