really stubborn warts

For several years I have had some very stubborn warts on my toes and fingers.

I have been seeing a dermatologist, who has been freezing them on a regular basis and I have been using salicylic acid as recommended by him in between treatments.

This hasn't stopped them multiplying and growing, they now cover parts of my toes and are so densly packed that it is impossible to count how many there are, 20 - 30 perhaps per patch. They are now spreading to other areas and I am at my wits end as to how to get rid of them.

I've tried other forms of treatment, but nothing stops them. Leaving them alone to go away themselves just allows them to spread unchecked. I have a very healthy diet, I eat all the right things and yet my immune system doesn't seem up to the job of getting rid of them.

Is there anything that you can recommend?

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

There is no single treatment for warts that is 100% effective and different types of treatment may be combined.

You should consult a skin specialist for the symptoms. If these are plane warts - she would benefit by using salicylic acid cream, cryotherapy, curettage and light cautery.

If these are filiform warts - cryotherapy or curettage and light cautery would help.

Keratolysis, removal of dead surface skin cells usually using salicylic acid, blistering agents, immune system modifiers ("immunomodulators"), or formaldehyde, often with mechanical paring of the wart with a pumice stone, blade etc.

Cryosurgery, which involves freezing the wart (generally with liquid nitrogen), creating a blister between the wart and epidermal layer, after which the wart and surrounding dead skin falls off by itself.

Surgical curettage of the wart.

Laser treatment.

Imiquimod, a topical cream that helps the body's immune system fight the wart virus by encouraging interferon production.

The wart often regrows after the skin has healed.

Let us know if you need any other information and post us about what the skin specialist advises.

Regards.