Surgical Procedures for Obstinate Plantar Warts

For some people, plantar warts last for a few days and eventually disappear. No plantar warts treatment is necessary. For others, over-the-counter plantar warts treatments are applied to relieve the pain caused by adding pressure to the bumps. And still for others, the plantar warts seem to take permanent residence. For obstinate plantar warts, many doctors usually recommend a surgical procedure.

Surgery is conducted in four different ways, electrodessication, curettage, debridement, and laser. The choice of the method depends on the diagnosis of the physician, the severity of the plantar warts, and the preference of the patient. There is no 100% guarantee that these plantar warts treatments will immediately and completely remove the warts. However, physicians and podiatrists resort to surgical procedures when the other non-invasive plantar warts treatments don’t show any signs of working.

In electrodessication, an electric current is passed through the warts using a needle. The needle conducts the electric current through the affected areas of the skin. The use of electric current as a plantar wart treatment relies on the idea that electricity will destroy the warts and will disable the HPV virus that caused the plantar warts.

In curettage, the wart tissues are removed by scraping them with a curette. Curettage is often used in combination with electrodessication. Before electrodessication and curettage are conducted, the physician applies anesthetics on the affected skin. The downside to both electrodessication and curettage is that they can leave scars.

Debridement is similar to curettage. The skin is first numbed by anesthetics and then the physician removes the warts using a scalpel. This particular plantar warts treatment is the surgical procedure of choice when there are small but numerous plantar warts. Sometimes, debridement is accompanied by the use of salicylic acid. The acid is believed to prevent the recurrence of the warts. The problem with this plantar wart treatment is that it can also leave scars.

In laser surgery, the physician may utilize various types of lasers, such as the pulsed dye laser or the carbon dioxide laser. The advantage of using laser over other surgical procedures is that it does not lead to scarring. Unfortunately, this plantar warts treatment can be painful and costly. In some cases, the patients needed up to 6 laser treatment sessions.

Surgical procedures are not the first options that people take when they find themselves saddled with plantar warts. But any of these surgical plantar warts treatments becomes the only way out of stubborn plantar warts.