The site of destruction hurts after removal of a wart - this is the most common complaint among dermatologist patients who have undergone the procedure of aggressive removal of pathogenic growths caused by the human papillomavirus. It should be noted that the feeling of pain and discomfort in the postoperative period is an acceptable natural reaction of the body. Time must pass so that after removing the wart, the site of destruction stops hurting and the wound heals completely. However, in some cases, prolonged pain is indeed an indicator of postoperative complications. In order to identify the pathological process in time, the patient should understand how healing proceeds within normal limits, and when it is better to consult a doctor.
Features of the procedure
Removal of plantar warts using a laser or radio wave method is carried out under local anesthesia. Taking into account the average area of the wart, a fairly decent amount of painkiller is injected.
Usually the doctor manages to remove all plantar warts in one session. However, if there are a lot of them and they are large, then you can reach the limit on the administration of painkillers. Then the removal is completed at the next session.
On the soles of the feet, the healing time is always long. From a month or more. The soles are too far from the heart, so relatively little blood comes there. When there are chronic diseases of the blood vessels of the legs, such as atherosclerosis of the arteries or varicose veins, the healing time is even longer.
It is necessary to make an appointment in advance and determine the number of plantar warts to be removed so that sufficient time is allocated for you.
What to do if a wart hurts
If the wart has been damaged, the area of skin should be treated with hydrogen peroxide and bandaged or covered with a plaster. The next step should be to contact a dermatologist to assess the extent of the damage and determine further actions. The doctor may prescribe some treatment or recommend removal of the wart.
If the wart begins to hurt for no apparent reason, while other symptoms of a malignant formation are present, you should consult a dermatologist or oncologist as soon as possible. The doctor will conduct the necessary studies and, depending on their results, determine further treatment.
Delay in this case is unacceptable, because Melanoma (skin cancer) develops at a very fast pace and, if you contact a doctor late, is practically untreatable. Therefore, if alarming symptoms are detected, you should seek medical help as soon as possible.
Preparation and process
How to prepare for the procedure
In the area of the sole, the injection of the painkiller itself is painful until the painkiller takes effect. It is advisable to take a pain-relieving capsule or tablet half an hour or an hour in advance (in consultation with your doctor) in order to reduce the sensations from the first injection. An hour before the procedure, it is also better to drink 40 drops of motherwort tincture. You should choose loose shoes so that after removing plantar warts, they do not put pressure on fresh wounds. The foot may increase slightly in size due to swelling caused by the administration of painkillers.
Process description
During the removal of plantar warts, the doctor uses a laser or radio wave knife to destroy those layers of the epidermis that are affected. It also captures some healthy skin around to destroy the viruses that live there hidden. It is important to clearly determine the boundaries and depth of the plantar wart so that there are no parts of it that recur.
What to do after deletion
After removing a plantar wart, the wound should be treated with solutions or ointments prescribed by the doctor. Antiseptics and antibiotics are usually prescribed to avoid infectious complications. It is possible to use antiviral ointments and creams to combat human papillomaviruses. As well as ointments that accelerate healing. You must be patient; the healing process in the sole area is long. The wound may be quite painful when walking, and a week or two after removal it may begin to bleed (newly formed granulation tissue is easily injured during the healing process). For pain, you can take painkillers from the NSAID class orally (analgin, diclofenac, ketonal and others) or use them in the form of creams and ointments.
Causes of painful warts
There are three main reasons why warts may hurt:
- Permanent injury as a result of friction upon contact with clothing, shoes, and other parts of the body;
- Mechanical or chemical damage;
- Transition from benign to malignant.
Often, flat, simple, senile warts do not cause discomfort or pain. However, if they are located in a place where clothing is constantly in contact with them, injury and friction occur, causing the person to experience pain.
Genital warts most often cause pain. These neoplasms have the appearance of an acute growth; they often merge with each other. In most cases, they are located in the armpit, groin, and genitals. Due to contact with clothing and movements during walking and hand movements, genital warts cause pain and significant discomfort.
Plantar warts also cause pain when walking and putting pressure on the foot.
In addition, warts can hurt due to mechanical damage, for example, when trying to pick off a tumor or due to accidental injury. If the warts are located on the head, they can be easily damaged by scratching, which will also cause pain.
Regular contact with chemicals, such as cleaning products and building materials, can cause a chemical burn, which will cause pain at the location of the wart. Therefore, when working with such substances it is necessary to use protective equipment.
The most dangerous reason for the pain of a wart is its transformation into a malignant formation. In this case, pain can only occur when pressed.
In addition to pain, this process may have other signs, such as bleeding, blackening of the wart, uneven color, the formation of uneven edges, and growth of the tumor. As a rule, all changes occur within a short time, because... Skin cancer develops very quickly.
Equipment
In the case of laser removal of plantar warts, a special medical laser device is used that emits rays that are absorbed by water or blood in the tissues. Thanks to this specific absorption, water quickly evaporates from the tissues, they dry out with minimal blood loss. In case of removal of plantar warts using the radio wave method, appropriate devices (Surgitron or other brands) are used. In them, electromagnetic radiation with a very high frequency evenly and bloodlessly separates tissues without burning them.
What does the wound look like after wart removal?
The photo shows the place where the wart was removed
Before you say that the wound hurts for a long time after removing a wart, you need to clearly understand how the wound should heal after surgery and how long it takes.
The first thing you need to know: removing a wart, regardless of the method of destruction, is an operation. Pathogenic tissues are removed, and the integrity of the capillaries feeding the wart is disrupted. At the site of the wart, a scab forms - a dense crust that covers the removal site. Since the intervention was carried out, it is not surprising that after removing the wart this place hurts.
As the tissue under the scab regenerates, the pain decreases. After a few weeks, the crust itself will fall off, leaving behind a layer of young epithelium of a soft pink color. Over time, this color reaches flesh tones. In most cases, there will not even be a scar left at the site of destruction.
The step-by-step process of tissue regeneration remains virtually unchanged. But the duration of each stage and its pain, even under ideal conditions, depends on many factors:
- destruction method;
- wart removal sites;
- depth and size of the formation;
- quality of postoperative treatment;
- the general health of the patient and other reasons.
It is generally accepted that if the area hurts after wart removal for one week, this is due to medical intervention. As a rule, the pain is aching in nature and gradually subsides. Other conditions, for example, when the leg hurts after removing a wart for 2 or more weeks, the discomfort intensifies, the pain does not go away even at rest, is a deviation from the norm and requires an immediate visit to the doctor.
Note! Different wounds also heal differently. Therefore, if you have had several warts removed and one wound stops hurting before the other, it’s too early to worry. You need to wait a few days, noting whether the symptom worsens on the second wound.
Why does the wart removal site hurt?
If after removing a wart the wound hurts for a long time, there is indeed a reason to consult a doctor. This condition may indicate the development of a number of complications.
The causes of pain at the site of destruction are:
- incomplete removal of the formation, recurrence of wart development;
- too deep exposure to the aggressive composition, which resulted in disruption of the deep layers;
- systematic mechanical impact on the wound (contact with clothing, pressure when walking, etc.);
- improper wound care, prolonged healing;
- infection of the wound followed by suppuration.
If the wound hurts after removing a wart, it is also necessary to exclude processes of tissue malignancy, that is, degeneration into a malignant formation. Only a doctor can identify the true cause of pain.
Note! Even after the scab has gone away, after removing the wart, this place may hurt; the cause, as a rule, is exposure to aggressive chemical compounds on the delicate areas of the skin. Even cosmetics can be an irritant. Therefore, until the skin is completely restored, it is recommended to cover the operated areas when working with household chemicals.
Wound treatment after wart removal
Any manipulations to care for the wound should be carried out according to the doctor’s recommendations, with strict adherence to the frequency of application of the products and the treatment method.
After removing a wart, the following are recommended for treating the wound:
- Calendula tincture or sea buckthorn oil have antiseptic properties and stimulate tissue regeneration. One bottle of the product costs from 47 rubles in Russia and from 6 hryvnia in Ukraine.
- Chlorhexidine is an antimicrobial antiseptic that costs only 15 rubles, 9 hryvnia, and is applied to the surface of the skin around the wound. It is also prohibited to apply the drug to the mucous membrane.
After treating the destruction site, it is necessary to apply a dry bandage and ensure rest of the part of the body on which the wart was removed.
Important! It is prohibited to wash the wound with alcohol-based solutions. Such compositions can lead to protein coagulation, burns and tissue inflammation. Improper manipulation of the wound can cause the area to hurt for a long time after the wart is removed.
If the wound hurts after removing a wart, but the doctor has not found the cause of such pain, this manifestation is probably an individual characteristic of the body, a reaction to the intervention. In this case, it is recommended to use special wound healing agents to quickly forget about the unpleasant procedure:
- Bepanten for treating small wounds. In Russia, the product costs 429 rubles for 30 g of 5% ointment, and in Ukraine - 117 hryvnia; it can be replaced by analogues Heppiderm, Pantekrem, Depantol.
- Levomekol for cases when pus has already formed, costs only 108 rubles, 14 hryvnia, is used for no more than 4 days in a row, then wound-healing ointments are used.
- Solcoseryl or its analogs Actovegil, Alantan are used at the last stage of wound healing. The drug costs 424 rubles, 183 hryvnia.
Important! Exceeding the permissible doses when treating wounds can lead to sensitization of the skin area and, as a result, pain after removing a wart, which is why the daily dose of pharmaceutical drugs when treating wounds should not exceed the norm specified in the instructions.
