At Be Podiatry we regularly see plantar warts which are also referred to as verruca pedis. These lesions are benign growths which commonly occur on the sole of the foot, on or in between the toes and can even develop underneath and surrounding the toenails. These lesions are caused by the HPV virus which can make treating them very tricky as they have a high reoccurrence rate.
There are many different treatment options when dealing with warts which can be found here.
For stubborn or painful warts which will just not go away we have the option of K-laser therapy. This is a good alternative option if conservative treatments have had no success. K-laser therapy works by heating up the warty tissue to a level where it can’t survive. Typically, one to three sessions may be required when using K-Laser to treat warts as a reference point.
Before treatment our podiatrist will debride the warty tissue to expose the base of the wart. Due to warts containing many nerve endings this makes them quite sensitive to treat. For a K-laser treatment we recommend using local anaesthetic to desensitise the area to make the treatment as comfortable as possible so that you won’t feel a thing. After the treatment your podiatrist will dress and offload the area to allow it to heal as quickly as possible. This is because the skin where the wart was will be very raw and resemble a wound. The aim of this treatment is to stimulate an immune response from within the body by causing tissue distruction to the wart. The bodies immune system will then respond through it’s inflammatory cascade processes to help it fight against the HPV virus.
After 2 weeks there will be a review appointment to check progress and healing. K-laser may again be utilised on the wound healing setting to speed up the healing process at this appointment.
