Medical Treatment for Warts

Common Warts, Plantar Warts, and Genital Warts

Common warts will usually disappear by themselves without treatment, but it may take months or years . If the wart presents a cosmetic problem or causes irritation because of its position, then the doctor may remove it for you.There are a number of methods the doctor may use to remove warts, however. some of them may leave a scar.The wart may be removed by cryosurgery,or freezing, it requires an initial softening of the wart over a period of a few weeks.

Firstly you will be required to treat the wart at home with a salicyclic acid gel, and a salicyclic acid pad combination. The aim of the gel and pad treatment is to soften the wart before freezing, this procedure may take a few weeks, once the wart has turned white and soft, the doctor can then treat it. Even with all of this procedure, you still may have to have a number of freeze treatments before the wart finally disappears, and there is no guaranteee that the wart wil no recur.

It is never recommended that a wart be excised, for they can recur with painful scars. Other methods to eradicate warts may involve the use of laser surgery, or electrosurgery. The electrosurgery treatment is performed under local anesthesia using a heat-producing electric current, the procedure is quick and effective but may cause scarring.Retinoic acid cream applied daily over a number of weeks may be successful in removing flat warts.

The treatment for plantar warts involves similar treatments as for the common wart, but other more intense methods may be used depending on the problem your plantar wart presents. A plantar wart will disappear by itself over time, and if its not causing pain it may be better to use OTC remedies, rather than subjecting yourself to painful and costly procedures. Because of the plantar warts location, under the foot, walking may be a very painful experience, so it may be necessary to have more intense treatments.

Duct tape either used alone or combined with salicyclic acid is a comon and successful treatment for warts. Cantharidin cream is another, cantharidin is an extract of Cantharis( spanish fly or blister beetle), this produces burning and blistering of the wart, and if it is combined with a salicyclic acid pad, then the wart may disappear much quicker.

Perhaps your plantar wart failed to respond to any of the above treatments, if so, further treatments may have to be implemented using, laser surgery, injecting the warts with interferon to stimulate your immune system, or injections of other antigens. Aldar cream has been successful in treating many kinds of warts, it is mainly used for genital warts. If all else fails, and you really can't tolerate your wart, bleomycin may be injected into the wart. This is a chemotherapy drug used to treat cancer, it has many side effects, therefore, pregnant women, men intending to start a family, and breast feeding mothers need to avoid this drug.

Treating genital warts requires that all sexual partners be treated, otherwise the risk of reinfection remains if only one partner is treated. Genital warts can be treated with cryosurgery, electrosurgery, laser, surgical excision. Podophilox may be topically applied to warts occurring externally only also trichloroacetic acid may be used, these treatment can be done at home. Bleomycin may be injected directly into the warts, or Alpha-interferon may be injected into the warts, both of these procedures can be done in your doctor's surgery.Any treatment for genital warts will need to have regular follow-ups to prevent spread of the infection, also regular Pap smears need to be done.

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