WARTS

INTRODUCTION:-A wart is generally a small, rough tumor, typically on hands and feet but often other locations that can resemble a cauliflower or a solid blister.

TYPES:-Common wart (Eruct vulgaris), a raised wart with roughened surface, most common on hands, but can grow anywhere on the body;

Flat wart (Verruca plana): a small, smooth flattened wart, flesh-colored, which can occur in large numbers; most common on the face, neck, hands, wrists and knees;

Filiform or digitate wart: a thread- or finger-like wart, most common on the face, especially near the eyelids and lips;

Genital wart (venereal wart, Condyloma acuminatum, Verruca acuminata): a wart that occurs on the genitalia.

Mosaic wart: a group of tightly clustered plantar-type warts, commonly on the hands or soles of the feet;

Periungual wart: a cauliflower-like cluster of warts that occurs around the nails.

Plantar wart (verruca, Verruca pedis): a hard sometimes painful lump, often with multiple black specks in the center; usually only found on pressure points on the soles of the feet;

CAUSES:-Warts are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). There are about 130 known types of human papilloma viruses.HPV infects the squamous epithelium, usually of the skin or genitals, but each HPV type is typically only able to infect only a few specific areas on the body

SYMPTOMS:-Common warts are gray to flesh colored, raised from the skin surface, and covered with rough, hornlike projections.

DIAGNOSIS: - A wart is diagnosed by its location and appearance. If uncertain as to the type of skin problem, the doctor may elect to perform any of several different tests.

Skin scrapings: The doctor will use a scalpel to scrape the uncertain wart and send the sample to a laboratory. There, the pathologist will look at the scrapings under a microscope to evaluate for other conditions such as skin cancer that may look like a wart.

Punch biopsy: This is a more invasive way of obtaining a sample of the questionable wart. The doctor will numb the area around the wart and take a deeper coring sample. This skin and questionable wart will be sent to a laboratory for further evaluation.

TREATMENT:-There are many different treatments and procedures associated with wart removal. Clinical trials of various cutaneous wart treatments concluded that topical treatments containing salicylic acid were the best supported. It can also be controlled by laser therapy and cryotherapy which include applying liquid nitrogen to freeze the wart. They can also be treated by the application of cantharidin as a pant on the warts. One complicating factor in the treatment of warts is that the wart may regrow after it has been removed

PREVENTION:-Gardasil is a HPV vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancers and genital warts. Gardasil is designed to prevent infection with HPV types 16, 18, 6, and 11. HPV types 16 and 18 currently cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases, and also cause some vulvar; vaginal, penile and anal cancers.HPV types 6 and 11 are responsible for 90% of documented cases of genital warts.