Is it a wart? A Guide from a Podiatrist in Nacogdoches Texas

I’ll never forget a golf outing about ten years ago when I had just returned to Nacogdoches to practice podiatry.  I was grouped with three older guys and we were playing in a scramble.  After a few holes together, they realized that I was a foot doctor for a living and off came the shoes! Lol.  Not a big deal.  I am happy to help as many people as I can with their foot concerns ( that’s why I’m blogging today) but now that I am blogging I think I will try to discuss the common questions I get while out and about.  I won’t mention your names!

After church Sunday, one of our moms pulled me aside and wanted me to determine if a lesion on her son’s foot was a wart.  This is a common question and, yes, a professional should be consulted if the lesion is not easily resolved.  But I thought I would describe the common descriptors of a plantar (bottom of the foot) verruca (wart).  I learned it this way…

“A plantar verruca is characterized by papillomatous tissue with skin line deviation, capillary budding and pain upon lateral compression”  I’ll explain.  Papillomatous tissue looks like the surface of cauliflower, Skin lines (fingerprint lines) curve around the lesion, Capillary buds look like brown spots within the wart, and it hurts when you squeeze it because a wart gathers up nerve fibers as it develops.

I hope this helps.  This is not intended to limit questions along the way…lol.  Just intended to help those I don’t bump into.  Please let me know how I can help and I’m glad the young man in church was a good sport when I told him we have a fairly easy way to get rid of it. For him, I hope it works so that we don’t have to remove it surgically!  He made it clear that he was relieved…lol.