Dry Needling

If you have been diagnosed with a verruca on your foot. This is a viral infection which gets into the skin and increases the turnover in skin production. Elsewhere on the body verrucae are often referred to as warts.

There are a number of options for treating verrucae including the use of acids to destroy the verruca infection but unfortunately this can also damage the surrounding healthy skin. Cryotherapy or the application of very cold probe to the area can also destroy the verruca but can be uncomfortable. The verruca can also be excised but this is quite an inconvenient treatment as it requires the area to be dressed for the subsequent 3 weeks.

Procedure

Another approach is dry needling whereby under local anaesthetic the verruca is repeatedly punctured with a micro dermic needle. This has two effects on the verruca, firstly it physically breaks down the verruca tissue in the skin and secondly prompts an immune response and this can be very helpful in resolving verrucae elsewhere on the feet or warts on other parts of the body.

The procedure is done under local anaesthetic and will require you to have an ankle block (type of anaesthetic) as this will cause your whole foot to become numb or a localized area surrounding the verruca. We would check your foot is completely numb before beginning the dry needling process.

The procedure is done under sterile conditions; placing sterile drapes around your foot and cleansing your foot with an antiseptic solution.

After the dry needling process a light dressing will be placed over the wound and this will be kept in place for 3 days. After which you remove the dressing yourself, bathe your foot in warm salt water and dress with a plaster if the area is uncomfortable. At this stage you will see a red/brown discoloration underneath the skin which is dry blood.

A review appointment will be made for 4 weeks post procedure. At this appointment the area will most likely need pairing of the hard skin. An evaluation of the area will be made on whether the dry needling has been successful/partially successful and will discuss further treatment options.

Benefits

Dry needling has been shown to be effective in roughly 70% of verruca infections. Apart from the inconvenience of undergoing the procedure all that is required is a light dressing. After 2-3 days you should be returning to normal activity although the area can feel somewhat uncomfortable but should continue to improve quite rapidly from this point.

Risks

The main risk of dry needling is that it will fail to resolve your verrucae, there is no guarantee for any verruca treatment. There is a small risk that it could spread the verruca infection but this is very unlikely. There is a small possibility that by breaking the skin with a hypodermic needle, infection could develop in the area which will lead to a course of antibiotics. Infections treated early can be reversed however if the infection is left untreated, it may deteriorate and become serious which might require hospital admission. The usual signs of infection are increasing pain after 3-4 days, redness which might extend away from the verruca area and presence of pus. If any of these do become apparent, please contact the clinic or your local GP.

If dry needling fails to resolve your verruca infection after 3 attempts we will then consider other options such as excision of the verruca.