Surgical methods to remove venereal warts

The initial treatment of venereal warts is usually medical. However, sometimes the wart may be bleeding or may be too large and surgery is another option of treating venereal warts. Surgery is also an ideal method for pregnant females if do not want to have the baby exposed to venereal warts. Today, there are several decent surgical options for removing venereal warts. These options include the following:

Cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen). In this method, liquid nitrogen is applied with a Q-tip on the wart. The initial treatment is not painful but as the wart starts to breakdown, the skin does become sensitive. The skin will blister and the wart will slowly slough off. One goes to a skin clinic where the physician applied liquid nitrogen 1-2 times a week. One needs long-term treatment which usually averages anywhere from 8-16 weeks. While the treatment is effective, it does tend to hurt in the later stages.

Electrocautery- this is just another fancy name for a heated electrical current to be applied to the wart. It is definitely painful. The treatment is effective but most people cannot tolerate the pain. The physician may apply a cooling gel o r a local anesthetic, but electrical current is still painful. It usually feels like a hot needle which is plunged into your skin (teach you not to fool around without a condom next time)

Surgery: Sometimes the wart may just be hanging off a stalk and can easily be excised. Most of these small warts can be removed with the use of local anesthesia. However, some warts located near the vagina or anus can be difficult to remove with only local anesthesia- the pain can be significant.

Laser: Today lasers are used of everything except cooking food. The laser generates an intense beam of light that generates energy. The laser can cut as well as kill the wart cells. Large warts requires multiple sessions. While laser is good, it hurts like hell and is very expensive. It is usually not the first method of choice. Most physicians reserve the laser for large warts that have failed other treatments.

Once a wart has been treated, there is no guarantee that it will not come back. All these treatments do not actually kill the virus, just the wart cells.