Verruca Needling
What is verruca needling ?
Verruca is a skin infection caused by The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). The virus invades the outermost layer of skin and causes lesions to appear on the skin.
Needling involves the use of a fine dental needle to puncture the verrucae lesion and pushing it back beneath the surface multiple times under local anaesthesia.
Advantages of needling?
One huge advantage over other treatments is that only one session of treatment is usually needed.
Another advantage of needling is that it can help clear up multiple verrucas. This is due to the surge in auto immune response that needling causes. Recent studies have shown Verrucae Needling has a success rate of approximately 70%.
Needling is a great alternative to traditional treatments such as cryotherapy as it does not create scar tissue.
The procedure
The procedure will be performed in clinic by a podiatrist and normally takes less than 1 hour.
A local anaesthetic will be injected into medial ankle and local to verrucas. The sensation of both touch and pressure are not affected, this is normal. The local anaesthetic may cause some discomfort when being injected into the foot.
Once the area has been fully anaesthetised the procedure will take place.
After the surgery the area will be monitored to ensure the stemming and clotting of bleeding and a sterile dressing will be applied.
You will then remain for a short period of time in the clinic with your foot up and the dressing will be checked to make sure there is not too much bleeding before you leave the clinic.
After the surgery
The foot may remain numb for up to 4 hours. You should rest the affected foot as much as possible, especially in the first 24 hours. Oral painkillers will be advised upon if you should require them
There is no need to redress area 24 hours after surgery when the initial dressings are removed unless the would is still damp. Normal activity can resume the following day.
As the treated area heals, the immune system will kick in resolving the affected area and regenerating new tissue.
