So, how do we get rid of verrucas?
The main indication for treating plantar warts is intolerable pain or tenderness on walking. This is usually because of the hard skin that accumulates around the wart. Keeping this under control poses problems if a pumice stone, for example, is used when the hard skin is moist after a bath or after wearing a piece of bare ‘sleek’ on the lesion for a few days. Chemists’ shelves are full of expensive wart remedies, principally because none of them work satisfactorily. Most of them work from time to time for the simple reason that all warts will eventually disappear in time. Even hypnotherapy has been known to ‘cure’ such warts. Occasionally, symptoms may make treatment inevitable and while cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen is best avoided on the foot, curettage (scraping out) under local anaesthesia is valuable in skilled hands. Soaking multiple lesions in 4.5% formaldehyde solution for 10minutes is also valuable and painless. It must be emphasised, however, that a medically qualified per
