Verrucae pedis or, as they are more commonly known, warts or even plantar warts can be very stubborn and hard to eradicate. The mainstay of treatment continues to involve multiple applications of acids or freezing with liquid nitrogen. This can take many weeks, if not months, to be successful, but in most cases warts can be removed.
After various attempts to improve outcomes and speed up the process, a minor procedure known as needling of warts or Falknor’s technique has been developed. A local anaesthetic is injected just under the wart and, once the area is completely numb, the local anaesthetic needle is inserted multiple times over a few minutes to break the skin and commence an immune response.
A large antiseptic dressing is applied and it is advised that you rest and elevate the foot for a few days. Once this first dressing is removed, smaller dressings are usually applied daily for a week or so. During this process, the wart will often dry up and come away with dried blood/scab.
It is believed that during the procedure viral proteins are identified by the body, stimulating an immune response that not only heals the site, but attacks the wart virus and eradicates the wart.
Most commonly the application of acids or freezing will enable the wart to be removed. However, if this has been unsuccessful or it is taking a long time, the needling procedure is available.
The team of podiatrists at Sydney’s Bio Allied Health (Podiatry) are skilled and can carry out this procedure in our rooms.
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