What to do if warts grow on your arms

Warts are a common skin virus. Seeing the virus may seem scary, but it is not. Warts generally parasitize between human tissue cells and can only be seen on the epidermis. They are painless and itchy, and only humans will get warts. The treatment method will vary depending on the different locations of the warts. Most people will choose conservative treatment. So what should you do if you have warts on your arms?

What should you do if you have warts on your arms? After you get a wart, don't rush to remove it and take random methods. Don't use sharp objects such as a knife to forcibly remove it, otherwise the wart will recur and even the wound will become infected, leaving scars after healing.

Warts, also known as thousand-day warts, warts, dry tendon arrows, regret warts, etc., are commonly known as thorn warts. Its characteristic is the growth of warts on the skin, which initially look like red beans and flower stamens, and fall off over time. Warts are mostly caused by wind, heat and toxic evil attacking the skin; or by anger stirring up the liver fire, liver hyperactivity and blood dryness, and poor nourishment of tendons and qi; some are caused by trauma and infection, and are more common on the face and back of the hands. In the early stage, needle-sized papules appear on normal skin, which gradually develop into soybean-sized or even larger thorn-like protrusions; with clear boundaries, rough and dry surface, papillary hyperplasia, uneven height, and easy bleeding when forcibly peeled off; the number is uncertain, initially there is only one, and due to itself, it gradually increases to several or even dozens after inoculation. The normal skin color and texture are hard, which can be seen in common warts diagnosed by modern medicine. At present in the country, except for genital warts, the overall canceration rate of other symptoms is relatively low. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that warts are caused by the boiling of evil heat, and treatment focuses on clearing heat.

The first choice for treating warts is freezing with liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen refers to nitrogen gas liquefied under high pressure and low temperature. It does not pollute the environment. Its working principle is to freeze the local growths to death, and then they fall off naturally under the body's self-rejection. This method is the safest because there are no obvious wounds. In principle, the effect of blisters after freezing is better. If they grow on the feet, back of the hands and other more distal parts, it is easy to cause obvious inflammation due to excessive freezing, local swelling, pain and discomfort, etc. Therefore, the freezing of common warts on the hands and feet needs to be lighter. Generally, three to five treatments are required. Common warts around the fingernails or toenails often spread to under the nails and are difficult to be frozen due to the cover of the nail plate. In addition, these areas are rich in nerve endings and the pain is obvious, so these areas heal very slowly, generally requiring more than five treatments. Especially if the area under the nail is obviously affected, it is often necessary to remove the nail before considering cryotherapy.

The most common sites are fingers, back of hands, edges of feet, etc. It can also occur anywhere on the body surface, even the nostrils, tongue, ear canal, inner lips, and eyelid margins. Extensive cases can affect most of the limbs.

General clinical symptoms: In the early stage of the lesion, there are hard, small papules protruding from the skin surface, which are grayish yellow, grayish white, yellowish brown or light yellow, with a rough and keratinized surface. The number is uncertain. At first there is usually only one, but later the number may increase to several or even dozens. As the disease progresses, the lesions may increase in size and become patchy.

Periungual warts and subungual warts: Common warts that occur around or under the nails of the fingers or toes are called periungual warts or subungual warts. Its root is often located inside the nail contour, appearing as simple keratosis. Only when it invades the skin will typical wart-like lesions appear. If it spreads under the nail and causes the nail to be lifted, it will disrupt the growth of the nail and easily cause cracks.

Special types: Filiform warts, which are prone to occur on the eyelids, neck, chin, etc., are single, soft, filamentous protrusions, generally no longer than about 1 cm, normal skin color or brown-gray; digital warts, which are clusters of multiple, uneven, finger-like protrusions on the same soft base, with keratin-like tips. It often occurs on the scalp or between the toes, but can also occur on the face. There are usually several of them, which can last for a long time.