Wart on finger: causes, symptoms and treatment

A wart on the finger is a benign neoplasm that is viral in nature. The causative agent that provokes the appearance of such growths is the human papillomavirus. Warts are considered safe formations because. rarely cause cancer. However, this fact does not mean that treatment is not necessary at all. This article contains detailed information about the etiology of the disease, external signs and modern methods of treatment.

Causes of warts on fingers

Warts are not uncommon, because. the human papillomavirus that causes their growth is highly contagious and spares neither adults nor children. The pathogen, getting on the skin, is introduced into the tissues through the slightest damage and remains in the body forever. At the same time, different viral loads are observed at different times, i. e. H. the population of the microorganism either increases or decreases. The disease can be asymptomatic for a long time. The incubation period can vary greatly in each case and ranges from 1-6 months to several years. All this undoubtedly affects the nature of external manifestations. So, an increase in the activity of the virus causes the appearance of the same warts on fingers, feet, knees and other areas of the skin.

The safest way to get infected is through direct contact with someone who is already infected. HPV is commonly sexually transmitted, so unprotected or promiscuous sex is the most likely cause of the increase in incidence. However, most often the growth of warts on the fingers is caused precisely by the contact of the upper limbs with infected surfaces, be it the hands of a virus carrier or objects that he just used - a pen, cutlery, a towel, a book, etc. AsPlaces of increased risk are all public spaces, but especially those with increased humidity.

Even a baby from a mother can get infected. This happens during childbirth.

When localizing warts on the fingers, there is an increased risk of self-infection, i. e. H. rapid spread of infection to the face and other parts of the body. The reason for this is the susceptibility of the growths to frequent injuries, leading to the release of a large amount of the pathogen to the surface, and the fact that the fingers can come into contact with all other layers of the skin and transmit the virus to them.

The reality is that the answer to the question of why warts appear on fingers is quite ambiguous and involves many provoking factors. First, the development of a viral infection is facilitated by a decrease in the immune status of an infected person, when the body can no longer resist the activity of the virus, maintain its population at the same level and prevent the uncontrolled growth of epithelial cells in the form of a wart on the finger or othersBody parts. Again, everything is ambiguous, because the decrease in immunity also has a number of reasons. This is an unbalanced diet, drug abuse and bad habits, as well as emotional and physical overload.

What else causes warts on fingers? Various acute and chronic diseases such as severe colds, diabetes mellitus, HIV, venereal diseases, skin pathologies, etc. lead to activation of the causative agent, even an individual characteristic such as hyperhidrosis or increased sweating stimulates the development of pathogenic microflora.

A lack of daily care and poor personal hygiene also allow HPV to infect more and more areas of the skin. Unwashed hands, untreated injuries, dry and weathered skin, nail biting and burrs can all be the cause of finger warts.

What do finger warts look like?

Most people confuse warts with other skin growths, such asand others at risk of infection.

In order not to make such mistakes, it is better to examine in detail what the warts on the finger look like, what types they are and go to the hospital in time to make an accurate diagnosis and determine an effective treatment regimen.

Benign epithelial changes caused by HPV have a network of capillaries that nourish their cells. Therefore, when the integrity of the growth is damaged, minor bleeding occurs very often, which increases the risk of spreading infection and infection of the wound. This is partly why trying to cut away these hardened tissues is strongly discouraged.

Warts appear in a single crowd at first - just one or two. However, due to problems in the functioning of the immune system, more and more formations can appear. Sometimes they even fuse together, creating an extensive skin lesion.

It is worth considering that a rapidly growing focus indicates a strong activity of the pathogen and prompts an urgent visit to the doctor. It is also worth going to the hospital to find out how to treat warts on the fingers, if the neoplasm darkens or reddens, if its structure changes visibly and there is swelling, suppuration or arbitrary removal of pathological fluid from the growth body.

Warts can be yellowish in color, in tone with the skin, gray-brown. In some cases, black dots are visible on the surface - these are just places where thrombosis of small blood vessels has occurred.

The most common types of warts on fingers are as follows:

• Vulgar warts. The second name is ordinary. They often appear not only on the inside of the palm, but also on the entire surface of the fingers, sometimes affecting the periungual space, where the skin is exposed to tension and ridges. Flesh-colored structures are more common, but brown-yellow or greyish ones can also be found. The shape is bulbous or domed. In diameter 2-7 mm. The structure of the build is quite dense and slightly rough. It is drier than healthy skin. Can tear and cause pain.
• Superficial flat warts. Their surface protrudes only slightly above the skin. The shape is rounded, although when spreading and merging there are also outgrowths with an uneven contour. The color can be both brown and light yellow. The diameter of a flat wart on the finger is 3-4 mm. Their presence on the skin is most often not accompanied by pain.
• Deep flat warts. This type of skin formation often causes pain due to its structure. Outside the skin, the growths appear flat with a slight depression in the center, but their root grows deeper into the layers of the dermis. This, of course, leads to significant daily discomfort, which causes a person to go to the doctor more often than other reasons. The shape of deep formations is irregular, color and size are usually the same as in superficial warts.
• Subungual warts. The name is not chosen at random. Such growths appear precisely in the area under the free edge of the nail plate. The wart on the finger is initially flat and has a smooth surface, then it becomes rough and calloused. With a low activity of the virus, they practically do not cause any symptoms, but with a significant weakening of health and the lack of proper hygienic treatment, they grow, penetrate the tissues under the nail and provoke the rejection of the plate from the nail bed . In this case, it is no longer just an aesthetic defect. Pain and suppuration appear, gradually the formation reaches the matrix and irrevocably destroys it.

Many believe that treating such a disease is not mandatory if you are trying to boost the immune system so that the body can cope on its own. However, this view is largely wrong. After all, there are many reasons for the need to treat warts on fingers and other parts of the body. First of all, such neoplasms are quite contagious, and a person with just one wart can infect several healthy people, in whom the disease can proceed in a more serious form. Secondly, the presence of such skin formations is simply very embarrassing for many children, adolescents and adults, which, of course, causes a desire to find an effective way to remove a wart on a finger. What can we say about pain, susceptibility to injury and the dangerousness of the oncological process?

Ways to treat warts on fingers

Modern medicine knows many effective ways to remove a wart on a finger. Each of them has both advantages and disadvantages and should be used only as prescribed by a doctor and in combination with drug therapy, since the mere removal of growths by any method does not suppress viral activity and does not guarantee that the disease will not recur in the near futureFuture.

Removal of warts on fingers in the clinic

At the appointment with a dermatologist, a detailed diagnosis is carried out, the results of which, in addition to the main health indicators, determine the strain of the virus that caused the disease, as well as the risk of developing an oncological process. Tests are often required for comorbidities such as HIV, which can also cause warts on the fingers and worsen the course of the disease.

As a result, multilateral treatment is prescribed. It includes the removal of growths by any of the modern instrumental methods, including:

• laser removal. The most popular method. It is offered by almost all clinics. Using special devices, you can cauterize an epithelial tumor almost painlessly and prevent bleeding. The healing time of the crusts is minimal. The tissues after such exposure are quickly restored, so there are practically no traces in the form of scars on the skin.
• Removal of radio waves. The method is based on the strength of radio waves, which simply cut out growths without bleeding. With the help of a radio knife, you can remove warts on your fingers, practically without touching healthy tissue. The procedure is quite expensive, but it is considered highly effective and safe.
• electrocoagulation. The acting force is a current of different frequencies. It burns away the wart cells on the finger in a matter of seconds. At the same time, the vessels are closed, which prevents bleeding.
• surgical way.It is not performed without local anesthesia because. Removal is done with a scalpel. Appointed less often than other options. The main indication is a large lesion, when it is necessary to take material for histological examination, as well as the presence of deep ingrowths in the skin and under the nail plate. Healthy tissue is often injured during the procedure. Scars often remain after healing. The price of the surgical intervention is calculated individually in each individual case.
• cryotherapy. Widespread method. The body of the wart on the finger is eliminated by exposure to liquid nitrogen at ultra-low temperatures. This option is characterized by good performance, freedom from pain and no need for local anesthesia. However, during the recovery period - about 7-10 days - all doctor's recommendations should be followed so that the treated areas heal quickly and smoothly.
• chemical method. Removing a wart on a finger is done using harsh chemicals such as trichloroacetic acid. It is better to entrust the implementation to a qualified specialist in order to avoid burning healthy tissues. The blow must be very precise and only on the body of the structure. Scars may remain after healing. The cost of the procedure depends on the chosen drug and is calculated individually by the doctor.

No method offers a 100% guarantee of effectiveness and freedom from repetition. The result depends not only on the type of wart, its localization, but also on the qualifications of the medical staff and the devices and preparations used. During the recovery period, the patient himself plays an important role, who must follow all the doctor's instructions: daily treat the sites for removing warts on the fingers, prevent injuries, hypothermia of the palms, take prescribed medications, get rid of bad habitsand normalize the diet. Only then you will not have to decide again how to get rid of a wart on your finger.

Treatment of warts on fingers with medication

Competent medical treatment of warts on fingers involves taking drugs, the action of which is aimed at suppressing viral infection, increasing the immune status and restoring the balance of minerals, vitamins and other useful compounds.

Types of medical devices used to treat warts on fingers:

• oral preparations. This category includes funds with complex effects - antiviral and immunomodulatory. At the moment there are no drugs that can completely kill the human papillomavirus. Therefore, one of the tasks of modern medicine is to simulate natural immunity in order to increase the body's resistance and significantly reduce the viral load, thereby stopping the growth of warts on fingers and other places.
• external use. Some drugs are intended for antiseptic treatment, others accelerate tissue regeneration, others have a local antiviral and immunostimulating effect, others nourish skin cells and normalize all metabolic processes.
• Cauterizing external agents. They can contain both corrosive acids and other components that contribute to the destruction of growths. Application at home is associated with the risk of burns, so the procedure should be carried out with great care. Some drugs work on the principle of cryo-destruction, others on the principle of chemical destruction.
• vitamin and mineral complexes. They are prescribed to prevent nutrient deficiencies in the body, restore metabolism and the efficiency of individual organs and systems, including the immune system.

Folk remedies for warts on the finger

The effectiveness of traditional medicine does not subside disputes. Some argue that it is ineffective and people simply waste precious time by refusing to go to the doctor, others consider it the only right way to safely cure most diseases.

In search of the right answer to the question of how to reduce a wart on your finger, it is better to use the golden mean. Consult a doctor and discuss with him the possibilities of complex therapy, including instrumental removal of growths, taking HPV-specific drugs and appropriate folk remedies.

Popular folk remedies for treating warts on fingers:

• plum compresses. Dissolve salt (20g) in water (150ml), add vinegar (20ml) here, stir and dip half of the pitted plum into this solution. Infusion time - 2 hours. Take out the plum, puree the flesh. Apply the resulting slurry to the warts and fix with a bandage or plaster for 2-8 hours.
• Thuja oil against warts. It is used externally 4-5 times a day. Daily use of this remedy ensures rapid recovery of epithelial cells.
• Tui tincture.Thuja leaves (20 g) are poured with vodka (100 ml). Insist 14 days. Lubricate the areas affected by warts on the fingers several times for 3 minutes. The procedure is repeated twice a day for 14-20 days.
• needle tincture. Take young coniferous branches and juniper fruits in equal quantities. Mix and grind all the raw materials. Put 50 g of the resulting mixture in a glass bowl and pour 200 g of alcohol. Leave on for about 3 weeks. Strain and use to lubricate the growths. It is enough to apply 1 time per day.
• lemon peel infusion. Remove the zest from 1-2 lemons and chop them, you can use a knife, you can use a meat grinder. Pour the mass into a glass jar and fill up with vinegar in a volume of 100-150 ml. Close the lid tightly. Leave to insist a week, do not forget to shake every day. Then remove the cake and treat the warts on the fingers with the resulting infusion, trying not to touch healthy skin.
• Horse chestnut decoction. To prepare it, you need to boil 2. 5 liters of water, add horse chestnut leaves (120 g) and boil over low heat for 15 minutes, strain and pour the broth into a basin. When it cools to 36-40 degrees, lower your palms into it. The duration of such a bath is 20 minutes. Within 2. 5 weeks, 8 procedures must be performed, i. H. Repeat every 3 days before bedtime.
• herbal tea. Such a tool affects the entire body in a complex. However, its most important property is stimulating immunity to fight the virus. Systematic reception stops the growth of warts on the finger. To prepare it, mix 20 g of juniper needles, plantain leaves, chicory root and dandelion, birch leaves and 30 g of horsetail and nettle and then grind. Store in a glass container with a lid. For a decoction, take 20 g of the mixture, put it in an enamel pan, pour boiling water (500 ml) and leave for 60 minutes. Filter and consume internally before meals, 100-150 ml 3-4 times a day.

Regardless of what caused the weakening of the immune system and provoked the growth of epithelial tumors, warts that have arisen on fingers and toes, elbows, knees, feet and other places require special attention and appropriate treatment. Timely admission to the hospital, as well as choosing appropriate methods for removing growths and treating HPV, you can recover faster and forget about the unpleasant manifestations of a viral disease for a long time.