Warts, as you already know, are caused by the human papillomavirus. They can be placed on almost any part of the body, often warts appear on the hands. When are warts dangerous and require medical attention? How to prevent the appearance of warts on your hands? You will find the answers to these questions in the next article.
Warts on the hands
Wart (wart) is a benign contagious lesion of the skin that looks like papules or papillomas.
Common and flat warts and genital warts are caused by a common virus for them - Tumefaciens verrucarum. The incubation period is long (2-5 months). Histologically, depending on the clinical form, different severity of papillomatosis, acanthosis, hyperkeratosis is found; in styloid layer cells - perinuclear vacuoles.
Common wart (verruca vulgaris) is a dense, non-inflammatory nodule, from a pointed head to a pea, gray or yellow in color, with a rough surface. Most often localized on the hands. Common warts can appear in large numbers.
The wart is flat, or youthful (verruca plana, s. Juvenilis) - a flattened papule, slightly protruding above the level of healthy skin, rounded or polygonal contours, flesh-colored or yellow-pink, with a surface ofmatte, sometimes glossy. Flat warts are usually numerous, shed on the face, back of the hands in young people, mostly of school age.
Plantar wart (verruca plantaris) - a callus-like variety of a common wart - is located in places with greater pressure, mainly in the head of the metatarsal bone and in the heel area. Painful to pressure. After removing the horny masses from the surface of the wart, the papillary growths are exposed.
Genital warts (condyloma acuminatum) appear in the form of a small pink papule, then grow, taking on a papillary shape. When the papules join, extensive vegetation forms. It is characterized by a soft consistency, a narrow base in the shape of a foot. Most often they develop on the genitals, in the inguinal and intergluteal folds with maintenance and unclean skin cleansing.
Characteristics of warts on the hands and palm
Warts can affect absolutely any part of the epidermis of the hands, but most often they form on the back of the hand or in the area of the fingers. Moreover, most of these formations belong to the vulgar growths that do not change in color 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 are prone to fusion.
The distinguishing signs of warts on the palms are the following manifestations:
- Lack of pain and itching;
- The site of the skin defect does not have an epidermal pattern, which is usually restored after wart removal;
- Blackheads may appear on the surface of the formation, which represent clotted vessels.
Based on all the above, we can conclude that warts on the palms are more of an aesthetic defect, which, however, in the absence of timely treatment, can lead to a significant spread of neoplasms and a high risk oftheir mechanical damage.
How to recognize a wart
The wart looks like a mass rising over 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 diverse: from the palms of the hands and the face to the soles of the feet (plantar warts). A wart can appear on the palm and even under the nail! The formation is rough to the touch, or vice versa, smooth and flat.
Papillomas that appear in groups are capable of fusion.
Vulgar (common) warts usually appear on the fingers. A vulgar wart looks like an increase of no more than a centimeter in size, its color is brown or gray and it is dome-shaped. Black dots may be visible within the formation. Small flat warts often appear on the hands, and they are characterized by the appearance of clusters. Their color is pink or yellow.
Reasons for submission
The warts on the fingers and other parts of the body are of an exclusively viral nature, which is associated with the penetration of the human papilloma virus into the patient's blood. Based on this, the treatment of warts on the fingers, palm and elbows should aim to eliminate the underlying cause. Unfortunately, to date, no medical technique has been able to completely rid the patient's blood of the virus, which further explains the symptomatic therapy of neoplasms.
An important accompanying 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 an infectious process. Given the fact that HPV is able to enter the bloodstream through damage to the epidermis, it is worth mentioning the role of microtraumas, scratches and small wounds, which are not uncommon for the skin of the hands. Based on all of the above, you can once again appreciate the importance of maintaining 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 appear for a long time, being in the blood in a latent state.
As already mentioned, these neoplasms occur due to the penetration of the HP virus into the body, which has more than a hundred species. This virus is quite common and common warts are found in twenty percent of school children.
It is important to remember that the attack multiplies quite intensively - through the germination of the upper layers. Furthermore, the person from whom you caught the "warts" virus may not have the warts themselves. HPV is particularly prone to skin microcracks and microtrauma, so most people "bring" them from swimming pools and public reservoirs.
If you do not take measures for treatment and do not remove such rashes, complications can appear: they can spread throughout the body, and even if they disappear, they can come back again. When you remove warts at home, keloid scars can form.
Symptoms of warts on the hands and fingers
Of course, warts, for all their innocence, should not be ignored because they can cause quite a bit of trouble. Moreover, they are contagious and can be passed on to new and young victims through a simple touch.
By the way, the appearance of such rashes should be a reason to think about your immunity, because it is people with reduced immunity who are at risk. Numerous stresses weaken our immunity, and for this reason such people also become open 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, conversely, dark. The lump appears more than one, usually on the forehead, cheeks, arms and legs, small warts appear, dense and fleshy, smooth and flat. Rough growths appear around the nails or under the nails, and on the feet you may also notice such neoplasms that are oval or round in shape and which are painful to trample. By touch, they are slightly rough or smooth and flat, they can join in groups in a neoplasm.
The wart virus can sleep in your body for years, and its incubation period can last up to six months, so do not be surprised if they appear suddenly for no apparent reason.
Warts can be different: there are vulgar or common varieties, 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 fingers and toes. These are small growths, no more than one centimeter, hard to the touch, brown or gray. Their shape is usually cubed.
The ordinary or vulgar surface may be rough, resembling cauliflower in appearance, and black dots may be discernible inside. The flat type includes those that, up to five millimeters in size, are distinguished by a smooth flat surface, as well as pink, yellow or light brown. Typically, these growths appear on the face, but can grow in groups on the hands or knees.
The most unpleasant are the warts of the foot: they cause a lot of trouble while walking, causing the sensation as if a pebble has entered a shoe. They are usually quite rough, with dirty gray 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, which are also called genital warts: they develop on the genitals, as well as on the groin and buttocks, and are a direct consequence of an unclean attitude towards your body. From the outside, they look like pink knots, often join together, have a base that looks like a foot.
When you see a doctor
- if the wart quickly changes shape, color or all together;
- if the wart has an uneven color;
- if the boundaries of the warts are blurred (in this case, most likely, it is not a wart);
- if the wart hurts or hurts constantly (this increases the risk of transforming it into something more serious);
- if the number of warts gradually increases;
- if the wart bleeds or itches;
How to get rid of papilloma on your hands
Warts cause us a lot of worries in daily life. In conspicuous places, they do not look aesthetically pleasing; with inadequate localization, they are quickly damaged and cause pain. Therefore, very often people go to a dermatologist when warts appear. Because of the possibility of their malignancy, oncologists are also involved in warts.
Since the appearance of warts is associated with provocative factors, treatment is often supplemented by taking vitamin-mineral complexes, sedatives, and immune-boosting agents. Otherwise, mechanical removal of papillomas may not give the desired results, and after a while they will start to grow again.
The desire to get rid of warts yourself sometimes leads to bad consequences. The various folk remedies offered by various counselors not only fail to remove the wart but also contribute to its malignancy. Here you have to be extremely careful. Treatment of warts at home should not involve the use of traditional medicine, but the use of special medicines purchased at the pharmacy.
It is even easier to trust professionals from private clinics. Or make an appointment with a dermatologist, an oncology ambulance.
Papilloma removal methods
Today, private and public clinics can offer a fairly wide range of methods for eliminating warts. Before choosing a removal technique, listen to your doctor's recommendations. The doctor will advise you on the most appropriate intervention based on your individual characteristics. In particular, these are:
- Cryodestruction. . . Assumes the use of liquid nitrogen to destroy the papilloma. Nitrogen is applied to the wart, usually with an applicator, and the formation rises for fifteen to twenty seconds. To date, applicants have been developed that are easy to use at home. They can be purchased for a reasonable price at pharmacies.
- Electrocoagulation.Papilloma incision with a thin metal loop under high frequency current. Local anesthesia is performed before surgery. Complete recovery occurs within a week.
- Laser coagulation. . . It is similar to electrocoagulation, only one laser is used instead of current.
- Surgical intervention. . . Under local anesthesia, the wart is removed with a scalpel, the site of the surgical wound is sutured with a cosmetic suture. Used only when removing large papillomas.
- Chemical methods. . . They are used extremely rarely, as the risk of tissue damage nearby is very high.
What to do to disperse the warts on your hands
A woman's son was only four years old when warts began to appear on his arms. There were so many of them that in the mother garden they were asked that the mother should not take her there either. And what they just did not do with this disaster! Doctors recommended burning warts with acid. But the woman still decided to turn to folk remedies for treating warts.
Cut a branch of a thuja (the size of a palm) into 3-7 mm long pieces. Put in a glass vial, for example, hydrogen peroxide, pour alcohol. Cover with a cork and let bake for 12 days, shaking occasionally. After 12 days, open and keep the bottle open for 1-2 days. After that, the tincture is ready for use.
You need to dip a cotton ball into a matchstick 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 started to disappear from the boy's skin without leaving a trace. However, do not expect immediate results. So after 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 for warts on the fingers
For a very long time - over six years - a 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 the oncologist because she had already started to think it was a malignant neoplasm.
But in the hospital, her fear was not confirmed and the doctor suggested that she take a piece of propolis the size of a wart, insert it into her mouth and soften it with saliva. At this time, in slightly warm water - clean, without any additives - hold a finger with a wart for 30-40 minutes so that it softens as well. Then you need to wipe your finger and apply propolis to the wart, which has just softened in your mouth.
It should be fixed with adhesive tape for three or four days. It was written in the lunar calendar that it is better to start removing warts during the full moon and continue until the new moon.
The day before the new moon, remove all bandages and stop the treatment until the full moon, and start again on the full moon.
It was with such a popular method of treating warts that she painlessly escaped from this unpleasant disaster. If you have smaller warts, you may be able to get rid of the warts on a full moon to treat the new moon.
Wart prevention
It is known that it is easier to prevent disease than to cure it later. This fully applies to warts. First of all, you need to follow the basic rules of personal hygiene.
You should not walk barefoot in ordinary areas, especially wet ones - such as showers, locker rooms, swimming pools; do not abuse such shoes in which the feet sweat constantly, or at least find an opportunity to dry them qualitatively; do not unnecessarily touch your warts or objects or other people that the patient touched with you.
You also need to pay attention to your overall health and, in particular, your immune system - eat a balanced diet and lead a healthy lifestyle.
It would also be good to learn how 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.