Warts/Skin Tags

Warts are benign tumors that commonly involve the skin and other epithelial tissues. The etiologic agents for these infections are a class of double-stranded DNA viruses called papillomaviruses. Warts are generally classified by their clinical features and morphology (e.g., common, flat, filiform) or by location (e.g., genital, plantar, respiratory papillomatosis). Warts are commonly removed by liquid nitrogen, cryotherapy. Skin Tags can also be removed this way or depending on the size they can be removed surgically with scissors.

Your doctor may suggest one of the following approaches:

• Stronger peeling medicine using salicylic acid or trichloroacetic acid. Medicines with salicylic acid work by removing layers of a wart a little bit at a time. Salicylic acid has been shown to be more effective when combined with freezing.
• Freezing (cryotherapy) involves applying liquid nitrogen to your wart. With freezing, a blister forms under and around your wart. The dead tissue sloughs off within a week or so.
  Side effects of cryotherapy include pain, blistering and discolored skin in the treated area. Because this technique can be painful, it is usually not used to treat the warts of young children.
• Laser treatment. Pulsed-dye laser treatment cauterizes tiny blood vessels. The infected tissue eventually dies, and the wart falls off.