VERRUCA

SYMPTOMS

Common warts are found on your fingers or hands and have the following symptoms:

• Small or fleshy, grainy lumps
• Flesh-colored lumps, white, pink or tan
• Rough to touch
• Has small and black spots

You have to see a doctor if you have the following symptoms:

• The lumps are painful
• There is a change in appearance or colour
• They persist, spread or recur
• Are bothersome and interfere with daily activities
• There numerous warts, which may be due to a weak immune system

DIAGNOSIS

Much of the time, your doctor can diagnose verruca by doing the following:

• Inspecting the wart
• Scraping off the top layer of the wart to check for dark spots, which are thickened blood vessels
• Removing a small segment of the wart through shave biopsy, and sending it to a lab for examination

TREATMENT

Most warts vanish without treatment, however it might take a year or two and the new ones may grow close by. A few people have their warts treated by a doctor since home treatment isn’t working and the warts are a cosmetic concern.

The objectives of treatment are to demolish the wart, stimulate an immune reaction to battle the infection, or both. Treatment may take weeks or months. Indeed, even with treatment, warts have a tendency to return or spread.

Your doctor may use the following techniques to treat your warts:

• Peeling medicine (salicylic acid)
• Freezing (cryotherapy)
• Other acids such as trichloroacetic acid
• Minor surgery
• Laser treatment in the form of pulsed-dye laser treatment burns (cautery)