Scar tissue from warts on penis

[Ralph2002]

Two small warts appeared on the middle of my penis about 6 months ago. Tests for HPV were negative. I removed them myself with nail clippers (to give you an idea of how big they are) and now I have two scars causing me a lot of distress. I saw a general practitioner and he prescribed hydrocortisone valerate cream .2%. I'm to use the cream for one week then not use it for a week then repeat the cycle. After two weeks there has been no noticable difference. I called the dr. again and he said to give it 2 more weeks to see results and if that doesn't work he mentioned he may inject a small amt (hydrocortisone) into the skin. I would almost rather go to a plastic surgeon to get the problem taken care of. My questions are, how effective is this cream in eliminating scar tissue? Again, I've had the scars for about 6 months. What if there is part of a wart remaining that I didn't completely excise? Is there reason enough to believe that this cream and/or an injection would completely elminate the scars? If so how long should I expect it to take? If I see a plastic surgeon what options would he/she have to remove the scars and how comlete of a removal would be possible? After this long I want to get it taken care of by the fastest and most reliable means available. Is there anything I'm missing? I'm 26 and single so ignoring them is not an option. Thank you for the help.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

I don't know what you mean when you say you had warts but that "Tests for HPV were negative."  Warts are HPV.  What tests?

As to the scarring, you need to see a skin doctor to determine whether these is still wart tissue there, and whether the skin changes are indeed permanent.  Sometimes skin changes can take many months to go away, and messing with them just delays things.

Suppose, however, that you actually did scar yourself with your nail clipper surgery.  I guess you could see a plastic surgeon about revising the scar, though in all my years I never saw that done, or heard about it.  Scar creams don't do much.  Injections make thick warts flatten--but I;m not sure you need that if there's still a chance that the scar will flatten on its own, and in any case flat scars are still visible and therefore likely to make you unhappy.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff

So first see what's actually going on.

[james10288]

A related discussion, scar question was started.