Talk:Wart

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 Information from Wart appeared on Portal:Medicine in the Did you know section on August 16, 2006.
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[edit] Viruses can't be aerobic

Viruses can't be aerobic or non-aerobic themselves- they aren't living things. Is the article implying that the wart itself (cells infected with virus) needs oxygen to grow, and absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere?

Yes. Please some clarification on this. You can't "asphyxiate" a virus!!!!

I've removed the sentence that read: This treatment is effective because the virus that causes warts is aerobic (oxygen-breathing), and duct tape is impermeable to air molecules--thus asphyxiating the viral colony and curing the wart. The study the paragraph refers to does indicate that the duct-table method works, however it does not provide any explanation as to why it works. The aerobic virus theory seems unlikely at best. --PJF (talk) 10:04, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] That Picture

This straw poll is in regards to an image that is no longer part of the article. It is preserved here for historical reasons, and is no longer active. Thank you.

Good god, aside from how disgustingly huge that is, that's not an accurate representation of a 'normal' wart like one sees commonly. I realize it says 'very large' but I think most of us would prefer to see the most common sort of wart.

  • Remove Yeah, it's gross. Can't even read the article normally with that thing staring at me ;)
  • Remove -- That's just going for shock effect, not instruction. MShonle 15:19, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
  • Remove Nasty nasty. The picture has been in my head since I saw the article yesterday, so I'm going to go ahead and remove it. Dreamyshade 03:06, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
  • Keep It may be nasty, but somepeople don't no what warts look like. (like me till i saw it). --Andrewcool 01:38, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
    • Comment Whoops, I guess no one remembered to leave a note here when the picture was changed! This straw poll wasn't for the picture that's currently there. It was for one (which I believe has since been deleted) that was very unrepresentative of normal warts. Thanks for you input, though! Were the poll still relevant, your opinion would be very helpful in deciding what to do. --Icarus (Hi!) 02:27, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment THANK YOU for removing that stomach-churning picture. Aaronimo 15:20, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Home Remedies

Although a disclaimer is offered for treatments, I think removal of the mentioned treatments (lighter/air-duster) should be given discussion. These are hardly factual and are against any recommendation a board certified physician would make. In my opinion, this is not what Wikipedia stands for.

  • Remove I think the efficacy and description of various treatments as explored by the medical community is indeed relevant, although I do not think this is what you are talking about. I believe the suggestion of unstudied treatments, especially with instructions, is not reasonable material for wikipedia. It is not testable or verifiable without a medical study, and wikipedia cannot provide such. Further, the suggested methods if strictly followed might not be notably harmful, but recommending self-burning and freezing tactics is sure to lead to a trial of errors. As such I believe it is conventionally not appropriate for Wikipedia for having no source, being nonfactual, but as a seperate case completely irresponsible to allow this material to be published in this fashion. JoshuaRodman 21:41, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
  • Remove A sentence or two along the lines of "Some people try to remove warts at home using lighters or aerosol propellant, but there home remedies are potentially dangerous and not recommended by doctors." would be okay, but the current form should go. Icarus 20:37, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
  • Remove I agree with Icarus. I don't have much of a medical background, but those "home remedies" sound like misguided attempts at a substitute for professional treatment to me. --Dirk Gently 03:03:59, 2005-07-30 (UTC)

[edit] Experts?

Another treatment for warts is to simply cut them off, or dig them out of the skin (for instance, if a wart appears under a finger or toe nail). Anyone want to phrase this in a medical manner? Hyacinth 03:08, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

My _completely_ inexpert understanding of warts is that cutting them can lead to the spread of the infected cells and thus the infection to other areas of the body, and that moreover, the removal would have to be reapplied a number of times for any reasonable chance of success. In any event, advising people to cut out parts of their bodies without medical supervision is not, I believe the role of an encyclopedia, nor safe, nor reasonable. Readers, please do not do this! JoshuaRodman 21:34, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
This was not intended as discussion of home remedies. Any wart removal method may need to be applied a number of times. Hyacinth 21:56, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
I apologise, I misunderstood the context of your comment. To me, it sounded like a suggestion. If we can find a reference that lists this as a commonly used practice, inclusion makes sense to me, but I would prefer it if it included the medical community view of such a practice. As for multiple times, I wasn't suggesting this is specific to this action, but that the recommendation of causl readers to cut out parts of their bodies mutiple times was perhaps a bad idea. JoshuaRodman 06:06, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] More questions

  • How do warts spread?
I agree, there needs to be more info on contageon. The article only notes that contageon is sometimes possible. --Jadorno 07:35, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
  • How long can a wart "live" outside the body (e.g. on a floor)?

Papillomaviruses are super-sturdy. For example see J Infect Dis. 1997 Oct;176(4):1076 (PMID 9333171). A locker room floor would be a happy home for quite some time.Retroid 00:47, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Recent Developments paragraph

I agree with Dirk Gently that unless there's a source for this information to back it up, it should be removed from the article. Icarus 05:27, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Corn/callus

What is the difference between corn and wart? Meursault2004 15:40, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

A callus is a thick hardened patch of dead skin. It's caused by long-term repeated rubbing and is the body's way of creating a protective layer. Anyone can get calluses, and they are not contagious. A wart is a growth caused by the Human Papilloma Virus, and it has no beneficial qualities. You can only get a wart if you have the virus (though most people do get it at some time in their life). Warts can go away on their own (though persistant ones that cause problems sometimes need to be removed), but calluses do not go away on their own (though, like warts, they don't always cause problems that require them to be removed). --Icarus 23:30, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cryosurgery Over-the-counter

I'm not an expert, but from what medical students I know have said, the over-the-counter "freeze sticks" do not work in a cryosurgery manner. They work by stimulating an immune response, not by freezing and killing the affected cells (which would be little different from burning them with a hot knife). This makes me a little dubious about the cryosurgery being used at all, or being used in the way described on the cryosurgery page. I suspect the idea of "freezing off" a wart is one encouraged by the freeze stick manufacturers, as the idea of making a wart just fall off is quite appealing. Anyone who knows a bit more the subject around?

Response: From my (recent) experiences, the freeze sticks do NOT work. I have a wart on my index finger, right where I pluck harp strings and pick up objects. I've been dealing with this wart since August, and spoke with one of the ER doctors at the hospital where I work. He suggested a Compound W type wart remover, and advised against the "freeze sticks". Naturally, being an impatient person, I sprung for the money for the freeze stick anyway. It caused an inordinate amount of discomfort, similar to having a toothpick pushed slowly into my fingertip, but the wart did not fall off even after being treated twice with the freeze stick over the course of a few months. In fact, the wart actually got worse and grew hard again. I have found much better results with the "gel" form of salicylic acid (Compound W, for example). The liquid form of this turned into a gel within the bottle after about a week of treatment and I personally find it very difficult to apply a gel-like liquid with a brush, but the edge of the gel tip works quite well for removing the bubble.

Also put down the money for a freeze thingy, part of one came off, but only part. I think it might actually have triggered the growth of two more. Since using it, i've noticed two small dots developing.

[edit] Wart in the brain

May a wart occur in the brain? --213.138.128.13 05:58, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Warts only grow in certain kinds of skin tissue. For example, they cannot grow more than a few inches up inside the rectum because the kind of skin they need to grow does not exist further in. I sincerely doubt they'd find the kind of tissue they need to grow within the skull cavity. Also, I am not aware of any mechanism by which the tissue inside the skull cavity would be exposed to the HPV virus in the first place. It's my understanding that it needs pretty direct contact to spread. (Insert standard warning about how I'm not a doctor here). --68.239.196.248 07:09, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] 85% efficacy?

A study[1] found that the duct tape method was 85% effective, compared to a 60% success rate in the study's cryotherapy group.

According to the Cochrane report, modern treatment methods are not more than 75% effective. [1] The study reviewed 52 randomized clinical trials dating up to 2003. The other main findings were:

  • overall there is a lack of evidence (many trials had poor methodology and reporting).
  • the average cure rate using a placebo was 30% after an average period of 10 weeks.
  • the best treatments are those containing salicylic acid. They are clearly better than placebo.
  • there is less evidence for the efficacy of cryotherapy.

This casts some doubt on the 85% efficacy result reported by Focht et al. which precedes the Cochrane survey.Pgr94 08:27, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it's right for a wikipedia article to say which study is correct, but if there have been studies with different results, then the article should neutrally and factually report on that. (Of course, a "study" that was widely ridiculed as utter quackery would be another matter, but even that could probably be handled with factual reporting of the medical community's response rather than the article outright taking sides. I don't know enough about the studies in question to know if this applies in this instance.) --Icarus 09:35, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

This article further undermines the duct tape remedy: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/11/06/warts.duct.tape.reut/index.html . It makes sense to mention some studies have found that duct tape can help, but it might be worth trying to research if there is any form of consensus. --134.68.77.186 17:37, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Home Remedies 2

This section has once again gotten way too large. It doesn't need to explain every last thing that people have done in an attempt to get rid of their warts. I propose that the banana skin, washing detergent, vinegar, and potato all be merged into one paragraph, something along the lines of this:

Many home remedies involve putting common household things, such as banana skin, washing detergent, vinegar, or sliced potatos on the affected areas for varying amounts of time. Proponents of these remedies say that the warts will then disappear after a varying number of days, but there have been no studies to prove their efficacy.

Would it be too POV to also add that they're probably no more likely to remove warts than kissing a toad is to give warts? Seriously, if bananas and potatoes were all you needed then there would be no need for expensive (compared to potatoes, at least) medical products. --Icarus 18:04, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This article is in need of additional material and restructuring!

I have not made any revisions to this article, since I am not a medical professional and do not feel comfortable doing so. Hopefully someone who is and is fully confident of the accuracy of the information they are providing will do so. This endeavor should be undertaken with the utmost social resposibility, as many will use this article as their primary source of medical advice on this topic.

  • The distinction between different types of warts should not be under "see also:" but rather at the top of the article.
- It should be made clear that the term "warts" can refer to:
* Common warts (verrucae vulgaris)
* Periungual warts (around the nail plate)
* Plantar warts (on the sole of the foot)
* Mosaic warts
* Filiform warts
* Flat warts (smooth, flat-topped, yellow-brown papules)
  • There should be a subsection detailing risks and advising readers on when it is recommended to visit a licensed dermatologist (as opposed to pursuing over the counter treatments). One such risk is cancer. Warts can also present additional complications for those with immunosupression (either induced or as a result of HIV or any other immunodeficiency). This subsection should also detail the potential risks of different treatment options. Laser treatment is the fastest and most efficient of available options, but may cause scarring (as can electrodesiccation).
  • The most relevant information, after treatment, to anyone who may have contracted HPV, that is contageon, is missing from this article!
- "can be contagious from region to region" is in no way sufficient as a discussion of this issue. Under what circumstances can this occur? How can this be avoided? Is contageon possible between different people?
  • "A few Papilloma viruses are known to cause cancer" Again, under what circumstances? Should anyone with a wart be worried about cancer? This needs to be clarified.
  • "None of these treatments are very effective on single uses" This is untrue. Destructive methods, such as laser surgery, are performed only once.

--Jadorno 08:28, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup?

Jadorno, I see that you just added a cleanup tag to this article. What about it do you think needs to be cleaned up? The "Home remedies" section needs to be pruned quite a bit, as I mentioned earlier on this talk page (and I'll do that cleanup myself in a few days if no one objects or does it before me—I just wanted to have a chance to get others' input before making major cuts), but I do not see what else is messy right now. Otherwise, it seems pretty well organized (though additional sections, like you suggested above, would of course be good if someone feels qualified to write them). --Icarus 08:54, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Icarus3, I am new to Wikipedia, perhaps I have chosen the wrong tag. If this is the case, please feel free to replace it with the appropriate tag. I believe that a cleanup of this article should involve an expansion of the introduction to include a disambiguation of the different kinds of warts and their respective treatments (which are not the same, according to The Merck Manual), and the replacement of the inadequate "See Also:" links at the end with this introduction. (Incidentally, The statement that "None of these treatments are very effective on single uses" is contested by the same source.) In its final form, I believe the article should follow the format of:
  1. Introduction
    1. Definition
    2. Disambiguation
  2. Methods of contraction, contageon and prevention
  3. Diagnosis (Do I have a wart? If so, what kind?)
  4. When to treat, when not to, when you should call a doctor
    1. risks of treating, risks of not treating, cancer, immunodeficiency, etc..
  5. Treatment (specific to kind of wart)
Until the article meets an acceptable standard of accuracy and comprehensiveness, I believe that it should be tagged. Basically, I am concerned that this article contains at least one inaccuracy and several instances of incomplete information. I don't believe that this would be grounds for "cleanup", were this not an article regarding health. Whether cleanup is the appropriate tag or not, there should be some tag on the page that makes it clear to readers that the information provided is beneath Wikipedia's standards and should be regarded as such in making decisions about their health. Could you suggest a better alternative to the cleanup tag, or would this be the best way to warn readers of the ( hopefully temporary :) ) substandard content? Again, I would like to stress the importance of providing accurate and comprehensive information when health is involved. --Jadorno 12:10, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Cleanup

I'm an expert on the topic of papillomavirus molecular biology. However, I'm not a physician and I may be out of my depth when it comes to some aspects of clinical treatments. I recently updated the papillomavirus main article, which had been a stub. I restricted the focus of the article to general features of papillomavirus biology. I'm now gearing up to help with HPV-related articles, but I'm kind of bewildered by the overall organization of various HPV-related topics in the Wikipedia. For example, the entry plantar wart - which I think is an exemplary Wikipedia article - is almost perfectly redundant with this wart entry. I imagine the two articles could be merged into one article covering all non-genital skin warts. I vote that the merged article be called "Skin wart" or "Common wart". Genital warts are different enough that they deserve a separate article.

I'm with Jadorno and Icarus - the unreferenced/unverifiable folk remedies in the current wart article are outside the Wikipedia mission statement and should be pruned away from the merged article. On my user page I'm compiling a list of papillomavirus-related topics in hopes of coming up with a more rational way of grouping other HPV-related articles. Retroid 17:55, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

(This the same comment I made here Talk:Plantar_wart).
There are numerous types of wart including Common warts, Flat warts, Filiform warts, Mosaic warts, as well as plantar and genital [2]. I think wart should hold information common to all types with specifics of each type on separate pages. So, I'm not convinced that merging is a good idea. But I would agree that much information is being duplicated and this should be addressed. This would probably involve moving content from plantar wart into wart and vice-versa. Pgr94 09:33, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

See Talk:Plantar_wart for further discussion

Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, and not a medical encyclopaedia. It seems right to me that the article mention the "folk" remedies or at least reference an article/series on folk remedies, as long as it is made clear that these alleged remedies are not supported by clinical research.TeamCoachingNetwork 13:01, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stress

"Some scientists believe they are also caused by stress." - Can anyone find a source for that? I kind of doubt that... That Jason 02:47, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Removed. If somone finds a source, put it back in.

[edit] Merging Wart and Plantar Wart - not a good idea

The HPV virus has over 100 subtypes. Plantar warts are merely a subtype of the wart virus. There are body warts, foot warts, hand warts, face warts, molluscum contagiosum, genital warts etc etc etc and plantar warts... To merge warts with plantar warts is nonsensical - to INTEGRATE plantar warts to warts is a possiblity. You can find out more about on warts in general as well as COMMERCIAL_LINK and COMEMRCIAL_LINK options by clicking the links - if you're interested that is.

I removed two links in the above that held no information that is not already in WP and were blatantly commercial. Wikipedia is not an advertising platform. Pgr94 09:22, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "cauliflower-like"

The phrase "cauliflower-like" in the introduction is confusing. In what way is a wart like a cauliflower? Is it a similar plant? No, it's a virus. I'm editing the sentence to reflect that a wart resembles a cauliflower. Aaronimo 15:08, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

They really should show a picture of your classic verruca vulgaris, which resemble cauliflower. Personally, to me they look more like the fried onion dish at TGIF.70.132.29.133 03:16, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Advertisement?

"Some people have used successfully the following medication: ShopRite's Antifungal Cream (Tolnaftate 1%). This is actually used to cure athlete's foot, but for some reason it works very well also against warts, possibly by creating an environment in which the verruca vulgaris virus cannot live."

Might be true, might not be true, but it sounds EXACTLY like something a stealth marketer would say, and as such, I deleted it.

--PsychoCola 00:31, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Even if it's not an ad, it's unsourced (and written in an unencyclopedic tone). Removing it was definitely the right thing to do. --Icarus (Hi!) 01:45, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Animation

Why do we need an animation consisting of only 2 frames. Surely 2 separate pics would be far better!--Light current 23:41, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

The animation in the treatment section has 5 or 6 frames, no? I'm the creator so I could easily create what you request, but I thought this might be better...--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 12:55, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
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