Foot and Laser Surgery

How Does It Form?

Warts typically form from a viral contact. This can commonly occur in locker rooms, swimming pools, and bathrooms. They tend to start out small, and most patients think it is a callus. Warts, with time, will generally spread or increase in size. There is some documentation of a hereditary sensitivity toward warts.

The longer you leave a wart untreated, the chance of spreading is greatly increased.

Symptoms

Pain and bleeding after picking at the wart are its greatest symptoms. Some warts are completely pain free, and some are quite painful.

Diagnostic Test

Warts are generally diagnosed by an experienced doctor on appearance alone. The diagnosis is usually confirmed by trimming the wart down and looking for "pin-point" bleeding, which helps differentiate it from a callus, which usually doesn't bleed upon trimming.

Treatment

At Foot First Podiatry, our treatment is unique in that we use a state-of-the-art procedure using a LASER to remove the wart. The goal in treatment consists of removing the wart completely and preventing recurrence. To reach this goal, a surgical or non-surgical treatment plan may be used.

Non-Surgical Approach

Non-surgical treatment for warts consists of acids, freezing, and cutting. These methods are occasionally effective for very small warts, but these may not be permanent solutions

Surgical Approach

The surgical treatment consists of the use of LASER. Foot First Podiatry utilizes a LASER in our on-site state-of-the-art surgical facility. The area around the wart is numbed with a local anesthetic. It is then excised and the base of the area is LASERed to ensure that the entire wart is removed and reduce the amount of bleeding postoperatively.

Most patients will return to normal activities immediately, and in their own shoe. Typically, an office visit is fifteen to twenty minutes. Afterward, cream or a Band-Aid may be used to facilitate healing