Electrosurgery and curettage for warts
Electrosurgery is a procedure that involves burning the skin that contains a wart. This is done with an electrical charge sent through the tip of a needle, drying and burning off the wart tissue. The skin around the wart must first be numbed with a painful local anesthetic injection.
Electrosurgery can be used for a single wart or a few warts but not for large areas of warts. It often leaves a scar, and warts can return after treatment.
Curettage is the surgical removal (scraping or cutting) of wart tissue using a scalpel or a small, sharp, spoon-shaped tool. This procedure may be painful and can cause scarring. Curettage usually requires local anesthetic, except in the case of filiform warts, which have only a small connection to the skin. Curettage is a quick treatment to remove warts, but recurrence of warts is common.
Electrosurgery and curettage are sometimes used together to treat large warts and increase the chance of successful wart removal.
| Author: | Douglas Dana Sabra L. Katz-Wise Ralph Poore | Last Updated: January 10, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine Randall D. Burr, MD - Dermatology Andrew Swan, MD, CCFP, FCFP - Family Medicine | |
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