Verruca Treatment

Verruca, which basically is a wart that occurs on the sole or toes of the feet, is caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). The virus causes your skin cells to multiply much faster than normal which could lead to the formation of a rough to touch bump in the skin and entrapments of small nerve fibres and capillaries. Therefore, you might see black dots due to rupture of capillaries or feel pain and discomfort caused by pressure on the nerves and surrounding tissues.

HPV is a weak and harmless virus and not everyone who comes in contact with the virus acquires infection. However, those who have a weakened immune system are at higher risk of developing a verruca.

At Achilles Foot Clinic, we offer a range of treatments for verruca which will be discussed with you during the initial consultation.

Acid Treatment

Salicylic acid which is a corrosive, acid-based solution softens the wart and causes the infected surface skin cells to become disintegrated and peel off, while encouraging an inflammatory response from your immune system that could lead to recognition and destruction of the virus which otherwise hides away from the immune cells. You may need a course of treatment with salicylic acid to achieve the desired result.

Cryotherapy

Cryotherapy involves freezing of the wart tissue which contains the infected cells. This leads to the formation of a blister which will fall off after few days. Similar to acid treatment, you may need a few freezing sessions to clear the wart fully.

Verruca Needling

Human Papilloma Virus that causes verruca invades epidermis which is the outermost layer of the skin and keeps away from your immune system which is more active in the deeper layer of the skin called dermis.

At Achilles Foot Clinic we offer verruca needling; a minor surgical method which is carried out under local anaesthetic. During the procedure, a fine needle is used to puncture the verruca lesion and implant infected cells into the dermis where an immune response is encouraged that leads to destruction of the virus.

This method has many advantages;

• it has a much higher success rate (approximately 69%) compared to other methods,
• usually only one session of treatment is required,
• if patient has multiple warts only the main lesion needs treating as the initiated systemic immune response will clear the other lesions.