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Wart Laser
Surgery
Warts are benign growths that
can occur anywhere on the body.
Rough to the touch, they are
extremely common and are caused
by the human papilloma virus or
HPV. Warts generally regress of
their own accord, although they
are not in a hurry to disappear
and can hang around the skin for
a couple of months or longer.
And so there are a number of
treatments available for those
people who want to speed up the
eradication process.
Zapping a wart with a laser beam
is often considered by patients
when all other treatments have
failed, or if the warts are
large and widespread. An
intense beam of light is focused
on the wart to burn and destroy
it, and the procedure is usually
carried out in a doctor’s office
or clinic under a local
anesthetic. Several types of
lasers can be used, but two of
the most common are pulsed dye
lasers and carbon dioxide
lasers.
Pulsed Dye Laser
Pulsed dye lasers target
hemoglobin (the oxygen carrying
molecule in the blood) within
the blood vessels of the wart.
The heat spreads out to
surrounding tissue which seals
the blood vessels and so starves
the wart of nutrients. The wart
dries up, becomes necrotic, and
eventually falls off. The
effectiveness of pulsed dye
laser treatment has been
demonstrated by several research
teams. In one study a removal
success rate of just over 79%
was achieved on patients with
plantar warts (Borovoy MA, et
al. Flashlamp pulsed dye laser
(585 nm). Treatment of
resistant verrucae. J AM
Podiatr Med Assoc 1996;
86:547-50). And a success rate
of 85.7 % was achieved with
pulsed dye laser treatment of
periungual warts (Robson KJ, et
al. Pulsed-dye laser versus
conventional therapy in the
treatment of warts: a
prospective randomized trial. J
Am Acad Dermatol 2000; 43 (2 pt
1): 275-80).
Carbon Dioxide Laser
Carbon dioxide lasers work by
sending out a highly
concentrated beam to vaporize
affected tissue, and has been
shown to be effective on
patients after just one
procedure (Serour, F, Somekh,
E. Successful treatment of
recalcitrant warts in pediatric
patients with carbon dioxide
laser. European Journal of
Pediatric Surgery. 2003; 13:
219-223). In this study
40
patients with a total of 54
recalcitrant warts were treated
with carbon dioxide lasers as
previous treatments had proved
ineffective. The laser was used
as a scalpel to cut the skin in
a circular fashion around the
wart, and then the base of the
wart was vaporized. All
patients undertook just one
session and healing time was on
average 4-5 weeks. 12 months
after the procedure wart
recurrence was nil, and there
wasn’t any significant scarring
or infection, although one
patient complained of
postoperative pain.
What to Expect
Wart laser
surgery is most common for
plantar warts and for genital
warts.
Genital wart laser surgery
and plantar wart laser surgery
should not be
considered lightly. The
procedure is expensive and the
wound can be painful for several
days after treatment.
People have been known to have a
longer recovery time with wart
laser surgery than with other
methods of wart removal.
There is
also a slight risk of
infection. On the plus side
laser surgery of warts can be
very effective and leave little
or no scarring.
More About Warts
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