Plantar Warts - Symptoms, Causes, Treatment and Types of Plantar Warts

Plantar Warts. As the name suggests, they occur mainly on the soles of the feet; they can sometimes be found on the palms of the hands. They are deeply set in the skin, lying in flask-shaped cavities, being wider at the bottom than at the top. The important symptoms are pain and tenderness.

Plantar warts occur singly at pressure sites like the balls of the feet and the heel; daughter warts are found in the contiguous areas. Clinically, a plantar wart appears as a painful, tender, hyperkeratotic, circular plaque, with a diameter of about one to one-and-a-half centimeters.

Scraping the surface of the wart with a blade reveals papillae with punctate capillary bleeding; papillae can be seen more clearly when silver nitrate paint is applied on them. An agglomeration of these warts on the sole with a polygonal outline and a roughened surface is called mosaic wart. It is usually superficial and painless. The infection is contracted in swimming pools: public bath rooms and less commonly, on the beaches.

A plantar wart must be differentiated from a corn. The latter is at a pressure site and has a smooth surface and when its surface is scraped, found absent is the papillomatous surface typical of the plantar wart.

The greatest amount of pain is felt when the corn is pressed from the top, the pain increases towards the evening; in contrast with a plantar wart, in which pain is felt when the wart is pressed from the sides as well as from the top, it being the greatest in the morning, on first putting the weight of the body on the feet.

Epidermodysplasia verruciformis is considered by many to be caused by invasion of the virus warts in genetically predisposed persons, manifested by profuse coalescent eruptions of verruca plana type lesions, usually on the limbs.

What is Plantar Warts?

A plantar wart medically known as Verruca plantaris is a wart condition which is caused by the HPV virus (human papillomavirus). It generally occurs on the sole or foot toes. Plantar warts are self limit induced. The treatment is taken to reduce the symptoms like pain, decrease duration, and reduce further contamination. In some of the cases, the HPV gets out within couple of years and bingo, the warts are simply gone.

Precautions for getting rid of Plantar Warts

1. Plantar warts spread by contact with moist walking surfaces, so take care while walking public areas such as showers or communal changing rooms barefoot.
2. Do not share shoes and socks
3. Avoid direct contact with warts on other people or on your own body.
4. Children are more prone to warts due to less immunity than adults. So take special care in case of children.
5. If you are filing your warts, then wash the file and hands carefully for stopping the spread of warts.

Some common facts about Plantar Warts

1. Pressure on the soles affects the skin layer over the warts causing a hard layer formation around the wart.
2. A plantar wart can be painful too.
3. Plantar warts affects heel and surrounding areas.
4. Althugh the warts looks flat in appearance, they can make you feel lump while you walk
5. Location on the body s the reason of why plantar warts grows inward instead of outwards

Treatment options of Plantar Warts

Commonly used method of treating or curing Plantar warts is to burn it off with mild acid. This dissolves the viral cells and allows normal skin growth. This treatment option can take several weeks to show results, but it has proven results. Salicylic acid, cantharidin, dichloroacetic or trichloroacetic acid are also useful.

Laser treatment is a new type of treatment which has further impacted the treatment of virus in warts. Laser procedure can be done at the physician's office as well. Although it is expensive, the desired efficacies are not as effective.

Types of Plantar Warts

1. Common warts - Caused by HPV types 2 and 4
2. Deep palmoplantar warts (myrmecia) - caused by HPV type 1
3. Flat warts - Caused by HPV types 3, 10, and 28
4. Butcher's warts - caused by HPV type 7
5. Heck disease - Caused by HPV types 13 and 32
6. Cystic warts - caused by HPV type 60
   

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