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Medical
Dermatology - Verruca / Warts
Warts are a
common, frustrating, and
confusing problem for parents
and children. Warts are skin
lesions caused by the human
papillomavirus and occur in
almost fifty percent of children
at some time. The common wart is
a small, hard, rough bump that
usually occurs on the hands and
fingers. Other types of warts
include genital warts, molluscum
contagiosum, flat warts and
plantar warts.
Although
most warts do typically go away
on their own and may not
require treatment, some do
become painful, bothersome,
rapidly spread, or don't go
away, even after several years,
and do need to be treated. The
most common treatments that
your doctor will likely try
include freezing the warts with
liquid nitrogen, which is
called cryotherapy, or applying
cantharidin to the warts. Both
treatments should cause some
blistering of the wart, causing
it to come off, although
multiple treatments are often
necessary. The cantharidin
treatments have the benefit of
usually being painless,
although it can trigger a
large, painful blister later
that day.
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