How to treat plantar warts

Plantar warts are also a common wart caused by infection with the human papillomavirus. It is highly contagious. Once you have this disease, you should seek timely treatment to prevent cross infection. There are many treatment methods. In daily life, you should avoid abnormal friction on the soles of your feet to avoid worsening of the disease. In addition, you can use cryosurgery, laser surgery, or surgical resection.

How to treat plantar warts

General treatment

Because the human body is often subjected to pressure and friction, it sinks into the skin and can cause pain when walking. If the surface stratum corneum is removed, loose filamentous keratin will be exposed. During treatment, you can apply wart removal cream, corn ointment or 30% glacial acetic acid topically. The simplest thing is to keep repairing and applying vinegar. Heat the vinegar after purchase. As the concentration increases, it will gradually get better, but it will be more painful.

Cryotherapy

Doctors often use liquid nitrogen to freeze and destroy warts. The treatment is not too painful and is effective, but repeated treatments may be required. During treatment, a circle of blisters will form at the site of contact with liquid nitrogen, and after about a week, the necrotic tissue will fall off. Cryotherapy can be painful for young children, so doctors generally avoid using it.

Cantharidin

Your doctor may prescribe cantharidin, an extract from cantharidae, applied to the wart. It is usually used in combination with salicylic acid and covered with a bandage after application. The treatment is painless, but the resulting skin blisters may be uncomfortable. After about a week, doctors remove the dead tissue.

Minor surgery

Sometimes your doctor may recommend electrodesiccation and curettage, which involves using an electric needle to destroy the wart or scraping it away. This treatment is very effective, but can leave scars if not performed carefully. Before the operation, the doctor needs to give the treatment area a local anesthetic.

Laser surgery

Doctors may also use various laser treatments to remove stubborn warts. Laser surgery is expensive, painful, and requires multiple stages of treatment.

Immunotherapy

This treatment attempts to use the body's natural immune system to eliminate stubborn warts. There are several ways. The first is to inject interferon (a drug that can enhance the body's immunity). The second is to inject some foreign substance (antigen) to stimulate the immune system. The antigen commonly used is the mumps virus antigen. This is because most people have been vaccinated against the mumps virus, so this antigen is harmless to the body and only stimulates the body's own immune response to attack warts.

Imiquimod

It is an immunomodulating cream that encourages the body to release cytokines (immune system proteins) to eliminate warts. Apply directly to the wart. The cream is commonly used to treat genital and perianal warts, but it is also effective for treating plantar warts and other common warts.

Bleomycin

For people with severe cases who don't respond to other treatments, doctors may give a direct injection of a drug called bleomycin to kill the HPV virus (this drug is commonly used to treat certain tumors). When used to treat plantar warts, it often causes pain at the injection site. This therapy should not be used or should be used with caution by pregnant women, breastfeeding women, or patients with poor blood circulation.