Verruca Care

A verruca on your foot can be too painful to ignore. If that’s the case, it’s a good idea to seek treatment from a podiatrist. At Kelso Foot Clinic, we offer an innovative verruca removal treatment.

WHAT IS A VERRUCA?

A verruca is a viral infection of the skin, similar to a wart. These can be of varying size and number and can occur anywhere on the foot. Most people will know them as having little black dots on the surface of the skin – these are blood vessels which have been pushed to the surface.

At an early stage, the verruca looks just like a blemish on the foot. It can spread quickly into a cluster of lots of tiny verrucae (known as mosaic warts). When you walk and stand, pressure tends to force the verruca into the skin – flattening it.

WHAT CAUSES A VERRUCA AND IS IT CONTAGIOUS?

The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the cause of verrucae, just as it is for warts and cold sores. The virus is contagious. Direct contact can result in the virus passing from person to person. It is thought that the virus thrives in moist, damp environments. That’s why swimming pools, communal shower areas and changing rooms are places that the virus can spread.

Like all warts, verrucae are harmless and sometimes go away over time without any treatment at all. However, there are lots of reasons to visit a podiatrist for your verruca. First of all, the natural process can take months or years. Secondly, while verrucae don’t always cause pain or discomfort, they are often too painful to ignore. And last of all, some patients find them unsightly. That’s especially true in cases where the verrucae spread quickly over the foot.

WHAT TREATMENT IS AVAILABLE FOR MY VERRUCA?

We offer three different verruca treatment options:

1. Freezing: your podiatrist will apply liquid nitrogen to freeze the cells the virus is living in. This causes the cells to die and leaves the virus without the host cell. That means that the virus dies too. Freezing can require several repeat treatments. But, you may ask, why not just complete the process at home? However, over-the-counter products are not as powerful as the liquid nitrogen provided in clinic.
2. Salicyclic Acid: The verruca is debrided and a pad is applied with a hole over the verruca. Your podiatrist then fills the hole with salicylic acid. In turn, this destroys the cells which the virus is living in. The pad does need to be left in place for 7 days.
3. Microwave treatment: This is a very new technique which involves rapidly heating the virus. The temperature rise causes the virus enzymes to become visible to the body’s defense system. That allows the body to make the required antibodies to destroy the virus.