Warts are one of the toughest aspects to dermatology. A viral infection that can spread, regress, stay static and often can be painful and embarassing.
The wart virus lives in the top layer of the skin, the epidermis, and makes a "home" for itself like a callus in most cases. They are frequently found on the hands nad the toes,. My theory is the temperature in those regions of then body are cooler than our core temperature by 3-4 degrees. I believe, not proven in any major article yet for warts, that the cooler temps slow down the immune system. Than your doctors have to come along and try to help.
50% of warts go away in 2 years if you do nothing at all. That is a very long time.
There are a dozen ways to treat warts, and that is because there is simply no one or two good ways.
Here they are.
1. Freeze at home or the doctors office.
2. Duct tape, recent study out of the U of Minnesota showed no real benefit. If there is a benefit, I suspect it comes from heating up the skin.
3 Compound W
4. Blistering beatle juice. cantharone.
5. Injecting wtih yeast - my personal favorite.
6. Injecting with interferon - medication for multiple sclerosis
7. Injexcting with chemotherapy - bleomycin, more of an older option.
8. Injecting or topically treating with AIDS medication - very very expensive, details not worked out.
9. Lasers. One that cuts and burns. Lots of down time and some potential for scarring.
10. Laser that snaps, no holes, but several visits. It is a pulse dye laser and tries to plug up the blood vessels that feed the wart. Same laser we use for kids birth marks,
11. Electrocauterize. Similar to the laser that cuts and burns, but uses electricity rather than laser light.
12. Several more that I won't go into.
Overall, yeast injections are my favorite. With 10 plus years of experience right now it is a not perfect, but very good option.
