Warts and Cutaneous Neoplasms

A Laser-Based Surgical and Medical
Practice Specializing in the
Foot and Ankle

IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION!

How do you check out your doctor?

SURGICAL BOARD CERTIFICATION: (ABPS = American Board of Podiatric Surgery) This is the gold standard of the surgical testing boards. For years, we have considered this a basic qualification. But not everyone agrees. Maybe this is because the pass rate for the ABPS exam is only 40%. There are many substitute (read "easier") boards around for physicians to take. So, be specific when you inquire. The ABPS is also split into two parts: 1. Forefoot Surgery, and 2. Rearfoot and Ankle Surgery. We are boarded in both.

Also, check with your local hospitals to see if your surgeon is on staff there. Hospitals have more stringent requirements than required by Virginia for office-only based physicians. You might ask the recommendation from the O.R. or Recovery Room nurses at your local hospital. They see everyone's work!

LASER BOARD CERTIFICATION: (ASLMS = American Board of Laser Medicine and Surgery) This board exam is for physicians and laser researchers. A doctor has to know everything about lasers to take and pass this board. Taking the part which is also given to research scientists also makes it a little tougher. This exam tests a wide scope of laser knowledge. If your doctor uses laser, ask him about this. Few have it. Physicians have to go out of their way to take this.

QUALITY ASSURANCE BOARD CERTIFICATION: (ABQUARP = American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians) Quite a mouthful. A national organization for health professionals involved in Q.A. work. This means that they work to set the "standard of care" in delivering medicine or surgery for other doctors, insurance companies, state regulations, and hospitals.

There are only 3 Podiatrists in the U.S. holding all 3 board certifications.

SURGICAL SECTION - What we Fix.

SURGICAL SECTION - Warts and Cutaneous Neoplasms

How do we do this with laser?
We ALWAYS do!
Click for the laser section!

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF WARTS

What does a wart feel like? Not very good. By the time you realize it, it is usually deep into the skin of the foot. Plantar warts (on the bottom of the foot) are the hardest to treat on the body.

Yes, warts are contageous. Warts are an infectious benign neoplasm (noncancerous growth) caused by any of 50 verruca viruses. They are respond to successfully to both conservative and surgical treatment, but the treatment must be matched to the manifestation and severity of the growth. This is one of those things we see frequently misdiagnosed. Everyone, including doctors thinks this is an easy diagnosis. But, only about 50% of patients seeing other doctors come in correctly diagnosed. Accurately analyzing and treating a pathology is why we are in business. That is why "warts" or whatever they might really be, don't go away.

If you are receiving treatment for a wart, and it does not respond within a month, contact us for treatment. We use a conservative modality and a variety of laser modalities which prove very effective. Since we are a laser-based practice, we have a variety of lasers on hand depending on the type of wart lesion, or other skin pathology.

CO2 LASER of Verruca (Wart). The traditional laser approach.
This is not appropriate for large areas.
They should have had the incisionless laser method below.

ARGON LASER Treatment. Much more humane.
No incision. Not even a bandaid, sorry!

Here's how it works. Instead of vaporizing off skin,
the ARGON beam travels through the wart, and kills the
blood vessels feeding the lesion. Later, the wart just falls off!

This unfortunate patient has a cavernous hemangioma.
This vascular lesion invades skin down to the bone.
Conventional surgery would mean removing the entire bottom of his heel to the bone.