Warts

Most of the time they are harmless. They are caused by a virus called human papillomavirus (HPV). Some types of warts are spread through sex.

Certain warts have an increased risk of cancer. Your health care provider can discuss this with you.

Warts may affect your appearance and can be embarrassing. Warts may itch or hurt (especially when they are on the feet).

Prevention

• Avoid direct contact with a wart on another person’s skin. Wash your hands carefully after touching a wart.
• Wear socks or shoes to prevent getting plantar warts.
• Wash the nail file that you use to file your wart so that you don’t spread the virus to other parts of your body.
• Ask your health care provider about vaccines to prevent some types or strains of viruses that cause genital warts.

Causes

All warts can spread from one part of your body to another. Warts can spread from person to person, but this is uncommon.

Symptoms

Most warts are raised and have a rough surface. They may be round or oval.

The spot where the wart is may be lighter or darker than your skin. Rarely, warts are black. Some warts have smooth or flat surfaces, or can cause pain.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF WARTS INCLUDE

• Common warts often appear on the hands, but they can grow anywhere.
• Flat warts are generally found on the face and forehead. They are common in children. They are less common in teens, and rare in adults.
• Genital warts(condyloma) usually appear on the genitals, in the pubic area, and in the area between the thighs. They can also appear inside the vagina and anal canal.
• Plantar warts found on the soles of the feet. They can be very painful. Having many of them on your feet may cause problems walking or running.
• Subungual and periungual warts appear under and around the fingernails or toenails.

Diagnosis

Your health care provider will look at your skin to diagnose warts. You may have a skin biopsy to confirm the wart is not another type of growth, such as skin cancer.

Treatment

Your health care provider can treat a wart if you do not like how it looks or if it is painful.

Do NOT attempt to remove a wart yourself by burning, cutting, tearing, picking, or by any other method.

Medicines

Over-the-counter medicines are available to remove warts.

Do NOT use over-the-counter wart medicines on your face or genitals. Warts in these areas need to be treated by a health care provider.

TO USE WART-REMOVAL MEDICINE

• File the wart with a nail file or emery board when your skin is damp (for example, after a shower or bath). This helps remove dead tissue. Do not use the same emery board on your nails.
• Put the medicine on the wart every day for several weeks or months. Follow the instructions on the label.
• Cover the wart with a bandage to prevent it from spreading.

Other Treatments

Special foot cushions can help ease the pain from plantar warts. You can buy these at drugstores without a prescription. Use socks. Wear shoes with plenty of room. Avoid high heels.

Your health care provider may need to trim away thick skin or calluses that form over warts on your foot or around nails.

YOUR PROVIDER MAY RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING TREATMENTS IF YOUR WARTS DO NOT GO AWAY

• Prescription medicines
• A blistering solution
• Freezing the wart (cryotherapy) to remove it
• Burning the wart (electrocautery) to remove it
• Laser treatment for difficult to remove warts
• Immunotherapy, which gives you a shot of a substance that causes an allergic reaction and helps the wart go away
• Skin medicine called imiquimod

Genital warts are treated in a different way than most other warts.

A medicine called veregen may be used on genital warts, as well as on other warts.

Recovery

Most often, warts are harmless growths that go away on their own within 2 years. Warts around and under your nails are harder to cure than warts in other places. Warts can come back after treatment even if they appear to go away. Minor scars can form after warts are removed.