Warts, as you already know, are caused by the human papilloma virus. They can be found in almost any part of the body, warts often appear on the hands. When are warts dangerous and need medical attention? How to prevent warts from appearing on the hands? You will find the answers to these questions in the next article.
Warts on hands
Wart (verruca) is a benign contagious skin lesion that looks like a papule or papilloma.
Ordinary and flat warts and genital warts are caused by a common virus called Tumefaciens verrucarum. The incubation period is long (2-5 months). Histologically, depending on the clinical form, different severities of papillomatosis, acanthosis, hyperkeratosis are detected; styloid layer in cells - perinuclear vacuoles.
The common wart (verruca vulgaris) is a dense, non-inflammatory nodule, from the head of the spike to a pea, grayish or yellowish in color, with a rough surface. Most often localized on the hands. Common warts can appear in large numbers.
The wart is flat or juvenile (verruca plana, s. Juvenilis) - a flattened papule, slightly protruding above the level of healthy skin, rounded or polygonal in shape, fleshy or yellowish-pink in color, with a matte, sometimes shiny surface. Flat warts are usually multiple, in young people, mostly at school age, they are poured on the face, in the back.
The plantar wart (verruca plantaris) - a common wart-like callus - is localized at the highest pressure sites, mainly in the metatarsal bone head and heel area. Painful to pressure. After scraping the horny mass from the wart surface, papillary growths are detected.
Genital warts (condyloma acuminatum) occur as a small pink papule, then grow to form a papillary shape. When the papules converge, extensive vegetation is formed. It is characterized by a soft consistency, a narrow base in the shape of a leg. It develops more often on the genitals, groin and intervertebral folds with dirty maintenance and skin maceration.
Wart properties on the hands and palms
Warts can affect absolutely any part of the epidermis of the hands, but most often they form in the back of the hand or in the area of the fingers. In addition, most of these formations belong to vulgar growths, the color of which does not differ from healthy skin and are relatively small in size - 0, 1-1 cm.
In terms of the number of such neoplasms, there are both single skin defects and multiple warts that tend to fuse.
The distinctive features of palm warts are as follows:
- Lack of pain and itching;
- There is no epidermal pattern at the site of the skin defect, which is usually restored after wart removal;
- Black dots may appear on the surface of the formation to indicate coagulated vessels.
Based on all the above, we can conclude that warts on the palms have a more aesthetic defect, which, however, in the absence of timely treatment can lead to a significant spread of neoplasms and a high risk of mechanical damage.
How to Recognize a Wart |
The wart looks like a mass that rises above the skin, different in color from the skin. Most often, several warts appear at the same time. At the same time, the localization can be very different: from the palms and face to the soles of the feet (plantar warts). Warts can appear on the wrist and even under the nail! The design is rough to the touch, or conversely, sleek and flat.
Papillomas that appear in groups are able to merge.
Vulgar (common) warts usually appear on the fingers. The vulgar wart looks like a growth no larger than a centimeter, is brownish or gray in color, and has a dome shape. Black dots may appear inside the formation. Flat small warts often appear on the hands and are characterized by the appearance of groups. Their color is pink or yellow.
Reasons for consideration
Warts on fingers and other parts of the body are only viral in nature, associated with the entry of human papillomavirus into a patient's blood. On this basis, the treatment of warts on the fingers, palms and elbows should be aimed at eliminating the cause. Unfortunately, to date, no medical technique has been able to completely rid the patient's blood of the virus, which rather explains the symptomatic treatment of neoplasms.
An important concomitant factor that provokes the appearance of warts on the hands is a decrease in the body's immune response, which can occur against the background of overwork, malnutrition or the process of infection. Given the fact that HPV is able to enter the bloodstream through epidermal damage, it is worth noting the role of microtrauma, scratches and small wounds, which is not uncommon for hand skin. Based on all of the above, you can re-evaluate the importance of personal hand hygiene.
Despite all of the above, HPV infection is not critical. Statistics show that about 90% of all people are carriers of the virus, which may not be latent in the blood for a long time.
As already mentioned, these neoplasms appear due to the entry of more than a hundred types of HP virus into the body. The virus is quite common, and common warts are found in twenty percent of students.
It is important to remember that the attack multiplies quite intensively - through the germination of the upper layers. What's more, the person from whom you caught the "wart" virus may not have the wart itself. HPV is especially popular for microcracks in the skin and microtraumas, so most of them are "brought" by people from public swimming pools and reservoirs.
If you do not take treatment and remove such a rash, complications can occur: they can spread throughout the body, and even if they disappear, they can return. Removing warts at home can form keloid scars.
Wart symptoms on hands and fingers
Of course, warts, despite their safety, should not be ignored, as they can cause quite a lot of trouble. In addition, they are contagious and can be passed on to new and new victims with a simple touch.
Incidentally, such rashes should be a reason to think about one's immunity, as people with reduced immunity are at risk. Many stresses weaken our immunity, and that is why such people become exposed to such a virus.
How to recognize a wart? Around the papilla or nodule that rises above the skin, the skin will be characteristically light or, on the contrary, dark. More than one bump appears, usually on the forehead, cheeks, arms and legs, small warts appear, dense and soft, smooth and flat. Rough growths appear around or under the nails, and neoplasms that are oval or round in shape and painful to climb can also be seen on the feet. When touched, they are slightly rough or smooth and flat, they can form groups into one formation.
The wart virus can sleep in your body for a long time, and its incubation period can last up to six months, so don't be surprised if they suddenly appear for no apparent reason.
Warts can be varied: they are vulgar or common, flat, plantar, as well as filiform and genital varieties. Common warts are those that appear on the feet and hands, on the elbows and knees, and on the toes and toes. They are small growths, no more than a centimeter, hard to touch, brownish or gray. Their shape is usually domed.
The normal or vulgar surface may be rough, resemble cauliflower in appearance, and black dots may be distinguished on the inside. The flat type includes those whose dimensions vary by up to five millimeters with a smooth flat surface, as well as pink, yellow or light brown. These growths usually appear on the face, but can grow in clusters on the hands or knees.
The most unpleasant are plantar warts: they cause a lot of trouble when walking, making it feel as if the pebble has got into the shoe. They are usually quite durable, dirty gray in color. The filiform type grows on the face - around the nose, on the neck, around the mouth. They are elongated and resemble a finger in shape and color.
Warts also include genital warts, also known as genital warts: they develop on the genitals as well as the groin and buttocks and are a direct consequence of dirty treatment of one's body. Externally they look like pink nodules, often converge, they have a base that looks like a foot.
When to see a doctor
- if the wart quickly changes shape, color or all together;
- if the color of the warts is uneven;
- if the boundaries of the wart are blurred (in this case, most likely it is not a wart);
- if the wart hurts or is constantly injured (this increases the risk that it will become something more serious);
- if the number of warts gradually increases;
- if the wart is bleeding or itching;
How to get rid of papillomas on the hands
Warts cause us a lot of inconvenience in everyday life. In visible places, they do not look aesthetically pleasing, with awkward localization they are quickly injured and cause pain. That is why very often people go to a dermatologist when warts appear. Due to the possibility of malignancies, oncologists are also involved in warts.
As the appearance of warts is associated with provocative factors, treatment is often supplemented by the intake of vitamin-mineral complexes, sedatives and immune-boosting agents. Otherwise, mechanical removal of the papillomas may not give the desired results, and after a while they will start to grow again.
The desire to get rid of warts on its own sometimes sometimes leads to bad consequences. Different folk remedies offered by different advisors may not only fail to remove the wart, but also contribute to the development of its malignancies. You have to be extremely careful here. Treatment of warts at home should not involve the use of traditional medicine, but the use of special medicines purchased at a pharmacy.
It is even easier to trust professionals from private clinics. Or make an appointment with a dermatologist, oncology dispensary.
Papilloma removal methods
Today, private and public clinics can offer a fairly wide range of methods for wart removal. Listen to your doctor's advice before choosing a removal technique. Your doctor will advise you on the most appropriate intervention based on your individual characteristics. In particular, they are:
- Cryodestruction. . . It is believed that liquid nitrogen is used to kill the papilloma. Nitrogen is applied to the wart, usually with an applicator, and the formation is frozen for fifteen to twenty seconds. So far, applicators have been developed that are easy to use at home. They can be bought in pharmacies at a reasonable price.
- Electrocoagulation.Papilloma dissection with a thin metal loop under high-frequency current. Local anesthesia is performed before the operation. Complete healing takes a week.
- Laser coagulation. . . This is similar to electrocoagulation, using only a laser instead of a current.
- Surgical intervention. . . Under local anesthesia, the wart is cut out with a scalpel, and the surgical wound site is sutured with a cosmetic suture. It is only used to remove large papillomas.
- Chemical methods. . . They are used extremely rarely because the risk of damage to nearby tissues is too great.
What to do to dissolve the warts on your hands
One woman's son was only four years old when warts began to appear on his hands. There were so many of them that in kindergarten the mother was asked not to take her there. And what they just didn't do with that misfortune! Doctors recommended burning the warts with acid. But the woman still decided to turn to folk remedies for the treatment of warts.
The thuja branch (palm-sized) is cut into pieces 3-7 mm long. Put in a glass vial, such as hydrogen peroxide, pour alcohol. Close with a stopper and allow to brew for 12 days, shaking occasionally. After 12 days, open the bottle and keep it open for 1-2 days. The tincture is then ready for use.
Soak the match cotton wool in it and lubricate the warts several times a day. It is recommended to lubricate up to six times a day. And after such treatment, the warts finally began to disappear from the boy's skin without a trace. However, do not expect immediate results. So since the course of treatment for the boy was quite long. And, by the way, the tincture can be stored for a very long time.
Propolis warts on the fingers
For a very long time - more than six years - one woman could not get rid of a wart on her finger. She tried to burn it with liquid nitrogen, but the wart continued to grow. She even went to an oncologist because she had already started thinking that it was a malignancy.
But at the hospital, her fears were not confirmed, and the doctor advised her to take a piece of propolis the size of a wart, put it in her mouth and soften it with saliva. During this time, keep your finger with the wart for 30-40 minutes in slightly warm water - clean, without any additives - to soften it as well. Then you need to wipe your finger and apply propolis to the wart that has just softened in your mouth.
It should be secured with adhesive tape for three or four days. The lunar calendar said that it was best to start wart removal during the full moon and continue until the new month.
The day before the new moon, remove all bandages and stop treatment until the full moon and start again during the full moon.
It was with such a popular method of treating warts that she painlessly got rid of this unpleasant accident. If you have smaller warts, you may be able to get rid of the wart in one full moon until a new moon is treated.
Wart prevention
It is known that the disease is easier to prevent than to cure later. This fully applies to warts. First of all, you must follow the basic rules of personal hygiene.
Common areas, especially wet rooms, should not be walked barefoot - for example, showers, changing rooms, swimming pools; do not abuse such shoes where the feet constantly sweat, or at least find a way to dry them qualitatively; do not touch unnecessarily your own or other people's warts or objects that the patient has touched you.
You should also pay attention to your general health and the immune system in particular - eat a balanced diet and lead a healthy lifestyle.
It would also be nice to learn to relax and avoid stress - by doing so, you are guaranteed to get rid not only of the possible appearance of warts, but also of a whole bunch of possible diseases.