Archive for Warts
Warts
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Today, we know that you don’t have be a liar, touch a toad, or drink a witch’s evil potion to get a wart. In all probability, you can’t even grow one by touching another person’s wart. Apparently, these lesions are non-contagious but can spread within the involved area of the same individual. In actuality, warts are encapsulated or walled off growths of viral tissue. Plantar warts on the feet are frequently painful with squeezing type pressure. In the vast majority of cases, the growth of a wart is preceded by some sort of skin puncture or would defect that in all probability, allows an entry site for contamination. Whether we all have inactive or potential wart viruses circulating in our bodies or gain the virus through the wound is as of yet unclear.
An interesting and often confusing distinction must be made between certain calluses and plantar warts. The surface of the wart often looks bumpy, or papillomatous, like cauliflower while skin lines or striations can be seen passing around a wart. In addition, plantar warts, upon close examination, will often demonstrate small black dots which when trimmed will bleed. These are tiny blood vessels, which become caught in the growth itself and are absent in regular callus tissue. A final line of distinction in identifying a wart is in its response to pressure. Squeezing a wart will usually produce extreme pain as opposed to similar pain from direct pressure on calluses.
Warts that appear on the hands and fingers are usually more responsive to therapy than are those on the feet. The professional methods of treatment available for plantar warts include just about everything from chemical applications and surgery to banana peels and hypnosis. Some warts respond quickly and some do not, and that my friends, is just plain honesty. I tend to start conservatively and if not successful become more aggressive in the fight. Even though we all know those old wives tales to be ridiculous, perhaps until your appointment with your foot specialist, you should stay away from toads, telling lies, and drinking weird tasting brews.
Viral Attacks – Warts and Your Feet
Posted by: | CommentsJust a quick note of explanation concerning wart infections of the feet. There are many theories concerning how a wart survives on a foot that can often confuse our understanding of treatment. I like to explain to my patients that a wart is a viral attack on the skin usually from a puncture wound, blemish or any break in the skin. The virus finds its way into the enemy territory of our skin and begins to build a fortress and fly its flag! The virus slowly collects its own blood supply, nerve supply and begins topush the skin around it further and further out. The reason the wart is able to establish this beachead in our skin is that it does not go deep enough into the skin for the body to realize it is being attacked! It just stay near the surface above the basement membrane. In a healthy patient if this level of the skin is broken by the wart then the body would send an immune response that destroys and rejects the wart tissue. Therefore, most treatments you see not only try to destroy the wart itself but also try to get the body to pick up the fight against the attacking virus. Please consult a podiatrist if you feel you need help against the war on warts.
Is it a wart? A Guide from a Podiatrist in Nacogdoches Texas
Posted by: | CommentsI’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.
Plantar Warts – A Viral Blog by Mark E. Sowell, DPM
Posted by: | CommentsToday, we know that you don’t have be a liar, touch a toad, or drink a witch’s evil potion to get a wart. In all probability, you can’t even grow one by touching another person’s wart. Apparently, these lesions are non-contagious but can spread within the involved area of the same individual. In actuality, warts are encapsulated or walled off growths of viral tissue. Plantar warts on the feet are frequently painful with squeezing type pressure. In the vast majority of cases, the growth of a wart is preceded by some sort of skin puncture or would defect that in all probability, allows an entry site for contamination. Whether we all have inactive or potential wart viruses circulating in our bodies or gain the virus through the wound is as of yet unclear.
An interesting and often confusing distinction must be made between certain calluses and plantar warts. Skin lines or striations can be seen passing through callus tissue whereas they will pass around a wart. In addition, plantar warts, upon close examination, will often demonstrate small black dots which when trimmed will bleed. These are tiny blood vessels, which become caught in the growth itself and are absent in regular callus tissue. A final line of distinction in identifying a wart is in its response to pressure. Squeezing a wart will usually produce extreme pain as opposed to similar pain from direct pressure on calluses.
Warts that appear on the hands and fingers are usually more responsive to therapy than are those on the feet. The professional methods of treatment available for plantar warts include just about everything from chemical applications and surgery to Lawrey’s seasoned salt and hypnosis. Some warts respond quickly and some do not, and that my friends, is just plain honesty. I tend to start conservatively and if not successful become more aggressive in the fight. Even though we all know those old wives tales to be ridiculous, perhaps until your appointment with your foot specialist, you should stay away from toads, telling lies, and drinking weird tasting brews.
