Podiatrist Offices Conveniently Located In Kenilworth, Bayonne, Little Ferry & Montclair New Jersey

Innovative Foot & Ankle

Footnotes / Blog

Sunday, September 3rd, 2017 Elizabeth Anthony

What is a Plantar Wart? 

A noncancerous skin growth on the bottom of the foot, caused by a viral infection in the top layer of the skin. It is specifically caused by a strain of HPV.

Symptoms

A plantar wart appears either by iteself or in a cluster (mosaic plantar warts) on the bottom of the foot. It can have an overlying callus, be flattened from the pressure of walking, and have little black pinpoint dots. They are often painful on a weightbearing surface. They may appear as a small lesions that continues to grow or spread with time.

Diagnosis

An in office clinical diagnosis is usually made. A podiatrist will shave down the callus overlying the plantar’s wart, and will expect to see tiny spots of blood arise. This often differentiates a wart from a simple callus.

Treatment

Plantar warts can be very stubborn, though many treatment options do exist.

  • Chemical
    • A podiatrist can apply liquid chemicals such as “Cantharadin” that cause blistering of the skin can remove a wart by causing it to “self-peel” from the healthy skin. It is painless to apply and often very effective when utilized with other at home remedies.

  • Freezing
    • Using liquid nitrogen or other freezing agents can also create a blister over the wart and peel the wart off from the base. This method can be very painful, often requiring injection with local anesthetic to numb the area being frozen.

  • Curettage/Surgery
    • Sharply removing the wart with a surgical blade is another successful form of treatment. This technique also requires injecting a local anesthesia into the skin around and underneath the wart. The tissue surrounding and underlying the wart must be removed as well to be sure to remove all viral tissue. This creates a wound which will need to heal, as well as the possibility of a scar on the bottom of the foot.

 

If you think you are suffering a wart and have not been able to treat with over the counter remedies, visit one of the offices of Innovative Foot and Ankle. We have locations in Essex County, Union County, Bergen County, and Hudson County in New Jersey.

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