This topic has information about warts on any part of
the body except the genitals. For information about warts on the genitals, see
the topic
Genital Warts.
What are warts, and what causes them?
A wart is a
harmless skin growth caused by some types of the virus called the
human papillomavirus (HPV). There are more than 100
known types of HPV. HPV infects the top layer of skin, usually entering the
body in an area of broken skin. The virus causes the top layer of skin to grow
rapidly, forming a wart. Most warts go away on their own within months or
years.
Warts can grow anywhere on the body. They are most common
among children and young adults.
There are five kinds of warts.
They look different and form on different parts of the body.
Common warts grow most often on the
hands, but they may be anywhere on the body. They are rough, shaped like a
dome, and gray-brown in color.
Plantar warts grow on the soles of the
feet. They look like hard, thick patches of skin with dark specks. Plantar
warts may cause pain when you walk, and you may feel like you are stepping on a
pebble.
Flat warts usually grow on the face, arms, or legs.
They are small (usually smaller than the eraser on the end of a pencil), have
flat tops, and can be pink, light brown, or light yellow.
Filiform warts usually grow around the mouth, nose, or beard area. They are the
same color as your skin and have growths that look like threads sticking out of
them.
Periungual warts grow under and around the toenails
and fingernails. They look like rough bumps with an uneven surface and border.
They can affect nail growth.
How are warts spread?
Warts are easily spread by
direct contact with a human papillomavirus. You can infect yourself again by
touching the wart and then another part of your body. You can infect another
person by sharing towels, razors, or other personal items. After contact with
HPV, it can take 2 to 9 months of slow growth beneath the skin before you
notice a wart.
It is unlikely that you will get a wart every time
you come in contact with HPV. Some people are more likely to get warts than
others.
What are the symptoms?
Warts come in a wide range
of shapes and sizes. A wart may be a bump with a rough surface, or it may be
flat and smooth. Tiny blood vessels grow into the core of the wart to supply it
with blood. In both common and plantar warts, these blood vessels may look like
dark dots in the wart's center. In most cases, the skin lines and creases over
the wart look distorted.
Warts are usually painless. But a wart
that grows in a spot where you put pressure, such as on a finger or on the
bottom of the foot, can be painful.
How are warts diagnosed?
A doctor usually can tell
if a skin growth is a wart just by looking at it. Your doctor may take a sample
of the wart and look at it under a microscope (skin
biopsy). This may be done if it is not clear that the
growth is a wart. It may also be done if a skin growth is darker than the skin
surrounding it, is an irregular patch on the skin, bleeds, or is large and
fast-growing.
How are they treated?
Most warts don't need
treatment. But if you have warts that are painful or spreading, or if you are
bothered by the way they look, your treatment choices include:
Using a home treatment such as salicylic acid
or adhesive tape. You can get these without a prescription.
Putting a stronger medicine on the wart, or getting a shot of medicine in
it.
Freezing the wart (cryotherapy).
Removing the
wart with surgery (electrosurgery, curettage, laser surgery).
Wart treatment does not always work. Even after a wart
shrinks or goes away, warts may come back or spread to other parts of the body.
This is because most treatments destroy the wart but do not kill the virus that
causes the wart.
A
wart develops when a
human papillomavirus infects the outermost layer of
skin and causes the skin cells to grow rapidly. The virus can then spread from
an existing wart to other areas of the body, causing more warts. Various types
of this virus thrive in warm, damp environments such as showers, locker room
floors, and swimming pool areas.
You are most likely to develop a
wart where you have broken skin, such as a cut, hangnail, closely bitten nail,
or scrape. Plantar warts are common to swimmers whose feet are not only damp
and softened but are also scratched and broken by rough pool surfaces. Common
warts are often seen among those who handle meat, chicken, and fish.
How are warts spread?
Warts are easily spread by
direct contact with a human papillomavirus. You can reinfect yourself by
touching the wart and then another part of your body. You can infect others by
sharing towels, razors, or other personal items. After exposure to a human
papillomavirus, it can take 2 to 9 months of slow growth beneath the skin
before you notice a wart.1
It is unlikely
that you will develop a wart every time you are exposed to a human
papillomavirus. Some people are more likely to develop warts than others.
Warts occur in
a variety of shapes and sizes. A wart may appear as a bump with a rough
surface, or it may be flat and smooth. Tiny blood vessels (capillaries) grow
into the core of the wart to supply it with blood. In both common and plantar
warts, these capillaries may appear as dark dots (seeds) in the wart's
center.
Following are descriptions of the main types of
warts:
Common warts usually appear singly or
in groups on the hands, although they may grow on any part of the body. They
usually are rough, gray-brown, dome-shaped growths.
Plantar warts can develop on any part of the foot. Sometimes dark specks are
visible beneath the surface of the wart. When pressure from standing or walking
pushes a plantar wart beneath the skin's surface, a layer of thick, tough skin
similar to a
callus develops over it. As the callus and wart get
larger, walking can become painful, much like walking with a pebble in your
shoe. Multiple plantar warts can form in a large, flat cluster known as a
"mosaic wart."
Flat warts are usually found on the face, arms, or
legs. They are small (usually smaller than the eraser on the end of a pencil),
and there are usually several in one area. They have flat tops and can be pink,
light brown, or light yellow. Flat warts are often spread by
shaving.
Filiform warts, a kind of flat wart, can grow around
the mouth, nose, and beard area. The surface of this type of wart has many
flesh-colored, fingerlike projections.
Periungual warts are
found under and around the toenails and fingernails. They appear as rough,
irregular bumps. They can affect nail growth.
Genital warts can be extremely small and difficult to detect. For more
information, see the topic
Genital Warts.
Common and flat warts usually do not cause pain. But they
can be bothersome and can spread easily if they are in areas that are
constantly irritated by rubbing or shaving. Visible warts can be embarrassing
for some people. Plantar warts often cause pain, especially if they are located
over bony areas of the foot.
Other skin conditions may look like
warts. These include:
Seborrheic keratoses, which are
noncancerous growths of the skin. They vary in color from light tan to black
and in size from very small to the size of a coin. The growths may look waxy,
pasted on, or stuck on.
Skin tags
(acrochordon), which are small, soft pieces of skin that stick out on a thin
stem. They most often appear on the neck, armpits, upper trunk, and body folds.
They commonly appear after middle age.
Corns, which
are areas of thick, hardened, dead skin.
Skin cancer. Skin cancer may appear as a growth or mole, a change in a growth
or mole, a sore that does not heal, or irritation of the skin.
Warts cover the lines and creases in the skin-this is one
way to tell a wart from other skin conditions.
What Happens
Human papillomaviruses can live on healthy skin
without causing infection. But when a human papillomavirus enters the body
through small breaks in the skin, it can infect the skin cells beneath the
surface, causing a
wart to grow.
A wart can take up to 9 months to grow before
it becomes visible.1
Warts, particularly
newer ones, are easily spread. They can spread to other parts of the body or to
other people. You can reinfect yourself by touching the wart and then another
part of your body. You can infect other people by sharing towels, razors, or
other personal items.
Common and flat warts can sometimes spread to
the genitals and
anus, especially in children.
Plantar
warts can be pushed beneath the skin's surface by pressure from standing and
walking. A thickening of the skin slowly forms over most of the wart and looks
and feels like a callus.
Periungual warts can affect nail
growth.
It may be hard to get rid of warts after they develop. But
they generally go away on their own within months or years.2
Just before warts disappear on their own, they
may turn black.
Your age. Warts occur most often
in children and young adults.1 As you get older, you
may find that you get fewer warts or your warts go away. Warts are less common
among older people, perhaps because people develop immunity to human
papillomaviruses over time.1
Risk factors you can control
Try to avoid the
following risk factors:
Walking barefoot on moist surfaces, as in
public showers, locker rooms, and around swimming pool
areas.
Sharing towels, razors, and other personal items with a
person who has warts.
Touching warts on yourself or someone
else.
Biting your nails or cuticles.
Wearing closed or
tight shoes that cause sweaty feet.
When To Call a Doctor
See your doctor if:
You are not sure whether a skin growth is a
wart. If you are older than age 60 and have never had
warts, consider seeing your family doctor or other health professional to check
for skin cancer.
Nonprescription home treatment is not successful
after 2 to 3 months.
Warts are growing or spreading rapidly despite
treatment.
Signs of bacterial infection develop, including:
Increased pain, swelling, redness,
tenderness, or heat.
You have warts on your genitals or around
the
anus. For more information, see the topic
Genital Warts.
Watchful Waiting
Watchful waiting is a period of time during
which you and your doctor observe your symptoms or condition without using
medical treatment. It is often appropriate treatment for warts, because they
generally go away on their own within months or years.2 But you may want to consider treating a wart to prevent it
from spreading to other parts of your body or to other people. You can try a
nonprescription wart treatment for 2 to 3 months before deciding to see a
doctor.
Who To See
Warts can be diagnosed
and treated by most health professionals, including:
Warts are
usually diagnosed based only on their appearance.
In rare cases,
more testing is done. If the diagnosis of a skin condition is unclear or if you
are at high risk of having skin cancer, your doctor may take a sample of the
growth and examine it (a
skin biopsy). A biopsy is usually done if a skin
growth is darker than the skin surrounding it, appears as an irregular patch on
the skin, bleeds, or is large and growing rapidly.
Proper
diagnosis of
plantar warts is important. Some wart treatments can
cause scarring.
Treatment Overview
Not all
warts need to be treated. They generally go away on
their own within months or years.2 This may be
because, with time, your
immune system is able to destroy the
human papillomavirus that causes warts.
You may decide to treat a wart if it is:
Painful.
Embarrassing.
Easily
irritated.
Growing or spreading to other parts of your body or to
other people.
The goal of wart treatment is to destroy or remove the wart
without creating scar tissue, which can be more painful than the wart itself.
How a wart is treated depends on the type of wart, its location, and its
symptoms. Also important is your willingness to follow a weeks- or months-long
course of treatment.
Many people first treat warts themselves by
using a nonprescription product such as salicylic acid or nonprescription
cryotherapy, which freezes the wart. Cryotherapy can
also be done in your doctor's office.
Wart treatment is not always
successful. Even after a wart shrinks or disappears, warts may return or spread
to other parts of the body. This is because most treatments only destroy the
wart and do not kill the virus that causes the wart.
Many people do not treat warts
unless they are unsightly or painful. If you choose to treat your wart, home
treatment is usually the first treatment tried. It includes:
Salicylic acid, a nonprescription
medicine that softens the skin layers that form a wart so that they can be
rubbed off. It is available as a paint, cream, plaster, tape, or patch that you
put on the wart. Salicylic acid may take weeks to months to cure a wart.
Salicylic acid formulas include Compound W Wart Remover, Occlusal, and Salacid.
Tape occlusion (duct tape). This treatment uses tape to cover the wart for a
period of time.
Nonprescription cryotherapy. Although cryotherapy
can be performed in your doctor's office, a type of this treatment for common
warts on the hands and feet can be done at home. You spray a combination of two
chemicals into a foam applicator and then hold the applicator to the wart for a
few seconds. This treatment should not be used for children younger than 4 or
by pregnant or breast-feeding women.
If you are uncertain that a skin growth is a wart, or if
you have
diabetes,
peripheral arterial disease, or other major illnesses
that may affect your treatment, it is best to see a doctor.
Treatment by your doctor
Cryotherapy is
often used if home treatment is not successful. This procedure uses a very cold
liquid to freeze a wart. Cryotherapy poses little risk of scarring, although it
can be painful.
Less commonly used treatment by your doctor
includes:
Retinoid cream (Retin-A, Avita), which
is a prescription medicine that you apply to the wart at home. It disrupts the
wart's skin cell growth.
Cantharidin (Cantharone, Cantharone
Plus), which causes the skin under the wart to blister, lifting the wart off of
the skin. This medicine is injected into the wart at your doctor's
office.
Bichloracetic acid (BCA),
which kills warts by destroying the proteins in the cells. It is useful for
warts on the palms and the soles of the feet. BCA also can destroy normal
cells, which is why careful application is needed. A doctor applies BCA once a
week.
Immunotherapy, which triggers your
immune system to destroy the virus causing the wart.
Because some of the substances used for immunotherapy are expensive, dangerous,
or require specialized handling, such treatment is usually considered only
after other methods have failed. Immunotherapy options include
contact sensitizers (such as squaric acid dibutyl
ester or SADBE),
imiquimod (Aldara), and interferon. Interferon is an
experimental treatment and is used only for severe and treatment-resistant
warts. Discuss the benefits and side effects of interferon treatment with your
doctor.
Surgery
If home treatment, cryotherapy, or
medicine does not eliminate your wart, your doctor may try to surgically remove
the wart. Options include:
Electrosurgery and curettage.
Electrosurgery is burning the wart with an electrical current. Curettage is
cutting the wart off with a sharp knife or a small, spoon-shaped tool. The two
procedures are often used together.
Laser surgery,
which is burning the wart off with an intense beam of light.
For electrosurgery, curettage, and laser surgery, a
local anesthetic is used to numb the skin before the
procedure.
What To Think About
Nonprescription salicylic acid
is as effective as or more effective than other treatments, with minimal risk
and pain.3
Other treatment options
include the medicines 5-fluorouracil and cimetidine and using light or lasers
(photodynamic therapy).
Factors to consider before treatment
Cost. Home treatment
is often as effective as treatment by a doctor and costs less. But home
treatment may take longer. Less expensive home treatments include tape
occlusion or nonprescription salicylic acid.
Ability to tolerate pain. Quicker but more painful methods
include some topical medicines (such as cantharidin) or cryotherapy. You may
want to pick a slower, less painful method of wart removal. These methods
include tape occlusion and salicylic acid treatments.
Potential for scarring. Scarring is the most important thing
to think about when choosing a wart treatment. Scarring from treatment may be
permanent and can be as painful as the wart itself. The bottom of the foot is
especially sensitive, a consideration in the case of plantar warts. Scarring is
also a cosmetic concern. Treatments that are less likely to leave a scar
include salicylic acid, cryotherapy, and laser surgery.
Risk of infection. Treatment can sometimes cause infection. If you have an
impaired immune system or a condition such as
diabetes or
peripheral arterial disease, discuss your increased
risk of infection with your doctor. You may need to take special
precautions.
History of recurrent warts. If
you have a history of warts that recur, you may want to discuss more aggressive
treatment methods with your doctor.
Location and number of warts. Large areas covered by warts may be better treated with
salicylic acid than with more painful, potentially scarring
methods.
Age. Painful treatments, such as
cryotherapy, may not be appropriate for young children. If you are older than
age 60 and have never had warts, you may want to see a doctor to check any skin
growths for skin cancer.
Time needed for treatment. Topical (putting medicine on the wart) treatment is often
slower than surgical treatment. Some treatment methods, such as immunotherapy
applied by a health professional, require repeated office visits. In such
cases, the expense and inconvenience may outweigh the benefits of
therapy.
Prevention
The main way to prevent
warts is to avoid contact with the
human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes warts. If you
are exposed to this virus, you may or may not develop warts, depending on how
susceptible you are to the virus.
In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approved Gardasil (HPV vaccine(What is a PDF document?)
). It protects against four types of HPV, which together cause
most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts. Gardasil is recommended for
girls 11 to 12 years old. The immunization is also recommended for females 13
to 26 years old who did not receive it when they were younger. It can be given
to girls as young as 9 years old. Studies show that the vaccine is safe and
works well to help prevent cervical cancer and genital warts.4 For more information, see the topic
Immunizations.
Tips on avoiding the human papillomavirus
Avoid touching warts on yourself or
others.
Do not share razors, towels, socks, or shoes with another
person. Someone with no visible warts can still be carrying the
virus.
Avoid walking barefoot on warm, moist surfaces where the
wart virus may be alive. Wear shower shoes when using public showers, locker
rooms, or pool areas.
Keep your feet dry. If your feet sweat
heavily, wear socks that absorb moisture or wick it away from the
skin.
Avoid irritating the soles of your feet. Warts grow more
easily if your skin has been injured or broken in some way.
Tips on preventing warts from spreading
Keep warts covered with a bandage or athletic
tape.
Do not bite your nails or cuticles, as this may spread warts
from one finger to another.
Home Treatment
Home treatment is often the first
treatment used for
warts. When done properly, home treatment is usually
less painful than surgical treatment.
Home treatment
includes:
Salicylic acid, which is currently considered the most
desirable wart treatment, based on its effectiveness and safety. It is as
effective as or more effective than other treatment, with minimal risk and
pain.3 The treatment takes 2 to 3 months. Salicylic
acid formulas include Compound W Wart Remover, Occlusal, and
Salacid.
Tape occlusion (duct tape), in which you use duct tape
to cover the wart for a period of time. This treatment takes 1 to 2
months.
Nonprescription cryotherapy. Although cryotherapy can be
performed in your doctor's office, a type of this treatment for common warts on
the hands and feet can be done at home. You spray a combination of two
chemicals into a foam applicator and then hold the applicator to the wart for a
few seconds. This treatment should not be used for children younger than 4 or
by pregnant or breast-feeding women.
If you are uncertain that a skin growth is a wart, or if
you have
diabetes,
peripheral arterial disease, or other major illnesses
that may affect your treatment, it is best to see a health professional.
Do not use home treatment methods to remove
genital warts. For more information, see the topic
Genital Warts.
Using salicylic acid
Salicylic acid is available
as a paint, cream, plaster, tape, or patch that you put on the wart. Be sure to
read and follow the specific instructions that are supplied with the medicine,
or follow your doctor's instructions. Salicylic acid may take weeks to months
to cure a wart.
For best results:
Before applying salicylic acid, soak the wart
in water to help loosen and soften skin. This helps the medicine penetrate the
skin more easily.
Apply salicylic acid to the wart when you go to
bed. Cover the area with a bandage or sock and wash off the medicine in the
morning.
Avoid getting salicylic acid on your unaffected skin.
Salicylic acid should touch only the wart.
With repeated
application, salicylic acid causes the wart tissue to become soft so that it
can be rubbed off easily.
Remove dead tissue daily or once or twice
a week with careful use of a file or pumice stone or as instructed on the
medicine package. Dead tissue contains living wart virus, so dispose of the
dead skin carefully. The pumice stone or file will also have living wart virus
on it. Don't use the file or pumice stone for any other purpose, or you may
spread the virus.
If treatment causes the area to become too
tender, stop using the medicine for 2 to 3 days.
Wearing comfortable shoes and socks. Avoid
high heels or shoes that increase pressure on your foot.
Padding
the wart with doughnut-shaped felt or a
moleskin patch that can be purchased at drugstores.
Place the pad around the plantar wart so that it relieves pressure on the wart.
Also, consider placing pads or cushions in your shoes to make walking more
comfortable.
Using nonprescription medicines, such as aspirin,
ibuprofen (such as Advil), or acetaminophen (such as Tylenol) to help relieve
pain. Do not give aspirin to anyone younger than 20
because of the risk of
Reye syndrome.
What to Think About
Most
warts do not need to be treated. They generally go
away on their own within months or years.2 This may be
because, with time, your
immune system is able to destroy the
human papillomavirus that causes warts.
Nonprescription salicylic acid is as effective as or more effective than other
treatment, with minimal risk and pain.3
A review of research suggests that salicylic
acid is a safe treatment that effectively eliminates warts up to 75% of the
time. By comparison,
placebo or no treatment produced an approximate
clearance rate of 50%.2
There is currently
no evidence that cryotherapy is any more effective than salicylic acid.3
Folk remedies, such as rubbing a wart with a bean, may
have an effect on a wart. But such treatment may simply coincide with the
natural disappearance of a wart.
Never cut or burn off a wart
yourself.
Medications
Most
warts do not need to be treated. They generally go
away on their own within months or years.2 This may be
because, with time, your
immune system is able to destroy the
human papillomavirus that causes warts.
If you decide to treat your warts, both nonprescription and prescription
medicines are available.
Salicylic acid, which softens the skin layers that
form a wart so that they can be rubbed off. This topical medicine is currently
considered the most desirable wart treatment, based on its effectiveness and
safety, but it may take weeks to months to cure a wart. Other therapies do not
appear to be more effective and tend to cause more pain or other side
effects.3 Salicylic acid formulas include Compound W
Wart Remover, Occlusal, and Salacid.
Prescription medicines
Prescription medicines
less commonly used to treat warts include:
Retinoid cream (Retin-A, Avita), which
is a prescription medicine that you apply to the wart at home. It disrupts the
wart's skin cell growth.
Cantharidin (Cantharone, Cantharone
Plus), which causes the skin under the wart to blister, lifting the wart off
the skin. This medicine is injected into the wart at your doctor's
office.
Bichloracetic acid (BCA), which kills warts by destroying the
proteins in the cells. It is useful for warts on the palms and on the soles of
the feet. BCA also can destroy normal cells, which is why careful application
is needed. A doctor applies BCA once a week.
Other medicines
Immunotherapy triggers your
immune system to destroy the virus causing the wart.
Because some of the substances used for immunotherapy are expensive, dangerous,
or require specialized handling, such treatment is usually considered only
after other methods have failed. Immunotherapy options include
contact sensitizers (such as squaric acid dibutyl
ester or SADBE),
imiquimod (Aldara), and interferon. Interferon is an
experimental treatment and is used only for severe and treatment-resistant
warts. Discuss the benefits and side effects of interferon treatment with your
doctor.
Bleomycin injection destroys the skin containing the
wart. Because bleomycin is painful during and after the injection, it is used
infrequently.
Salicylic acid treatments are
often effective. They are not very painful, not very expensive, and usually do
not cause scarring. Salicylic acid is a good treatment for children because it
is not very painful. For treatment to be successful, salicylic acid must be
applied on a regular basis, usually for a number of months.
Wart
treatment is not always successful. Even after a wart shrinks or disappears,
warts may return or spread to other parts of the body. This is because most
treatments only destroy the wart, but do not kill the virus that causes the
wart.
Your treatment options will depend on the type, number, and
location of the wart(s).
Other medicines used for warts include
5-fluorouracil, which is more often used on
genital warts, and cimetidine. Cimetidine can be taken
by mouth (orally) or as an injection.
As with any medicine, talk
to your doctor before using a wart medicine if you are or may be pregnant. Some
wart medicines may cause birth defects.
It is necessary to
distinguish a plantar wart from a
callus before choosing a treatment. Wart treatment
applied to a callus may be painful or create scar tissue.
Plantar
warts are often difficult to treat because they lie beneath the skin. A doctor
may need to
pare the skin covering a wart to help the medicine
penetrate the wart.
Surgery
Surgery is an option if home treatment and
treatment at your doctor's office has failed. Surgery for
warts is usually quick and effective. No single
surgical method is more effective than another in curing warts. Generally,
doctors start with the surgical method that is least likely to cause
scarring.
Surgery Choices
The most common types of surgical treatment for wart
removal include:
Electrosurgery and curettage.
Electrosurgery is burning the wart with an electrical current. Curettage is
cutting the wart off with a sharp knife or a small, spoon-shaped tool. The two
procedures are often used together.
Laser surgery.
Laser surgery burns off the wart with an intense beam of light.
For electrosurgery, curettage, and laser surgery, a
local anesthetic is used to numb the skin before the
procedure.
What To Think About
A wart may return after surgery
because surgery removes the wart but does not destroy the virus that causes the
wart.
The type of surgery used to remove warts depends on their
type, location, and size. Curettage, electrosurgery, and laser surgery are more
likely than cryotherapy to leave scars and thus are usually reserved for
hard-to-remove or recurring warts. If you have a large area of warts, curettage
may not be an effective treatment.
Some surgical treatments may be
too painful for some children.
When making a decision about
surgical wart removal, consider the following factors:
Scarring. Nonsurgical
treatments are less likely to cause scarring than surgical treatments. Scars
that develop after surgery on the sole of the foot (for plantar warts) can be
very painful.
Pain. The pain from the
surgical treatment usually comes from the injection of
local anesthetic, not from the procedure itself. You
may have pain after the drug wears off. Except for
paring, all surgical treatments require
anesthetic.
Cost of treatment. Surgery can
be expensive.
Duration of treatment.
Surgical treatments remove warts more quickly than nonsurgical treatments. But
some treatments require repeat office visits.
Cryotherapy,
which uses a very cold liquid to freeze a
wart, is the most commonly used procedure that does
not involve medicine to treat warts. This procedure poses little risk of
scarring but can be painful.
Tape occlusion (duct
tape), in which you use tape to cover the wart for a period of time, takes 1 to
2 months to remove the wart.
The American Academy of Dermatology provides information about the
care of skin, hair, and nails. You can find a dermatologist in your area by
calling 1-888-462-DERM (1-888-462-3376).
Androphy AJ, Lowly DR (2008). Warts. In K Wolff et
al., eds., Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine, 7th ed., vol. 2, pp. 1914-1923. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical.
Luk NM, Tan YM (2007). Warts (non-genital), search
date November 2006. Online version of BMJ Clinical Evidence. Also available online:
http://www.clinicalevidence.com.
Gibbs S, Harvey I (2006). Local treatments for
cutaneous warts. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
(3). Oxford: Update Software.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2006). FDA licenses new vaccine for prevention of cervical cancer and other diseases in females caused by human papillomavirus. FDA News. Available online: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01385.html.
Other Works Consulted
Ahmed I (2006). Viral warts. In MG Lebwohl et al.,
eds., Treatment of Skin Disease, 2nd ed., pp. 678-682.
London: Mosby Elsevier.
Basler RSW (2006). Sports medicine dermatology. In JD
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