Common warts, known medically by their Latin name verrucae vulgares, are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). The virus infects the top layer of skin, the epidermis, where it causes an increase in keratin production. The overgrowth of keratin, a protein found in skin, hair and nails, forms together into warts. Treating warts is difficult, and often when one is destroyed, others may appear in its place because HPV remains in the body even after a wart is removed.
Salicylic Acid Treatments
There are a number of over-the-counter treatments for warts that contain salicylic acid. Salicylic acid's low pH burns away the top layer of the wart. The treatment, available in gels, pastes, liquids and patches, needs to be reapplied daily until the wart disappears. Because warts are especially tenacious, this treatment can take weeks to months.
In a column for Medical Edge newspaper, Dr. Mark Dahl of Mayo Clinic suggests that the true benefit of salicylic acid treatments is that they damage the cell wall of the virus and thereby release the virus, where it can be identified and targeted by the immune system. Eventually, his theory goes, the body will develop immunity to HPV and new outbreaks will cease to occur.
Freezing Agents
Cryotherapy, or freeze therapy, can be effective in eradicating individual warts. It usually is conducted in a doctor's office using liquid nitrogen, which changes from a gaseous to liquid state at minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit. Over-the-counter freeze treatments have been developed for home use, using an aerosol propellant as the freezing agent. Because the propellant reaches temperatures only of about minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the treatment often has to be repeated.
Duct Tape
A popular home remedy for treating common warts involves keeping the wart covered with duct tape until it falls off. This treatment, recommended by the American Academy of Dermatology as an effective treatment for warts in young children, both debrides (removes the dead skin) and occludes (smothers) the wart.
Minor Surgery
Depending upon the location of the warts, the severity of the infection, the number and size of the warts and their appearance, removal may be necessary or desired. In addition to cryotherapy, a medical practitioner in a clinical setting can remove warts using electrosurgery, which uses electricity to burn away the growth. Both cryotherapy and electrosurgery offer the benefit of closing off the blood vessels that nourish the growths so there is little or no bleeding. Curettage, which is scraping the wart away, and excision, which is cutting it off, are two other forms of minor surgery that a doctor may use to treat common warts.
