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Plantar warts are a common skin infection
that occur on the sole, heel or ball of the foot and
are often irritating and painful. Warts are caused by
a virus, the human papilloma virus (HPV) that enters
the body through a break in the skin. The virus grows
in warm, moist environments (locker rooms, shoes, public
showers).
Often plantar warts spread to other areas
of the foot, increase in size, and have "babies,"
resulting in a cluster that resembles a mosaic. They
may be difficult to distinguish from callouses. However,
you may be able to see tiny black dots on the surface
layer of a plantar wart. These are the ends of capillary
blood vessels whereas callouses have no blood vessels.
Standing and walking push the wart up into the skin,
making it feel like there's a stone in the shoe.
Anyone can contract the virus that causes
plantar warts. Plantar warts occur most often in children
between the ages of 12 and 16, and young adults. Incidence
is higher in people who share common bathing areas (e.g.,
dormitory students, gym members). Each person’s
immune system responds to warts differently, so not
everyone who comes in contact with HPV develops warts.
Untreated warts can become as large as a 20 cent coin,
spread and develop into clusters (mosaic warts) making
walking extremely painful.
Treatment
 Although
your body’s immune system should be able to attack
the HPV virus making the wart simply disappear on its
own, plantar warts can be persistent. New warts may
grow as fast as old ones disappear and the best defense
is to treat new warts as quickly as possible so that
they have little time to spread.
Treatment consists in destructive techniques
to destroy the virus infected tissue and thus remove
the lesion. Great care needs to be taken when treating
warts, so as not to irritate any healthy surrounding
skin, which a podiatrist is better able to do.
Self-treatment for plantar warts using
an over-the-counter preparation is not recommended without
proper podiatric instructions as it is very easy with
these treatments to irritate the healthy skin surrounding
the wart.
Your Podiatrist may use a special acid
(chemical cautery) after having pared back the dead
skin and wart tissue, or he may freeze the wart (cryotherapy):
 Chemical
cautery: different types of acids can be used
by the podiatrist. It is extremely important that the
surrounding normal skin be carefully masked so as not
to be burned with the acid when applied to the wart
which can be best done by a podiatrist. It is essential
to see the podiatrist within a week or so for him to
gently remove the destroyed tissue under antiseptic
conditions. Another or several further applications
of acid may be necessary until the wart becomes necrotic.
Cryosurgical
technique: with this technique the podiatrist
will freeze the wart or warts. The applicator which
is held in contact with the skin, reaches a temperature
of -55°C. The affected area will turn white and
temporary, visible changes in the intensity of pigmentation
may occur following treatment. Cryotherapy sometimes
gives rise to blisters. Some infections may require
a series of fortnightly treatments. With cryotherapy
the uppermost layer of the skin, together with the infected
tissue, will disappear and will be replaced by a new,
healthy layer of skin in 10 to 14 days.
These treatments, which in most cases
require multiple applications over the course of several
weeks, disintegrate viral cells and allow healthy skin
cells to replace them. Usually, the longer the plantar
wart has been present, the longer the treatment.
If you have any questions about warts,
our treatment procedures, or what should be dones to
solve your foot problem, please give
us a call.
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