Crazy person removing a wart with a soldering iron

[MrSlack]

Ouch.

[Iwanushka]

That's just plain stupid, liquid nitrogen is used for that....

[chris_leyson]

Wart removal for real men  . Wire cutters just don't work, tried it once, ouch. When I was a kid had a few of them on my fingers and so did a few class mates, none of thought anything of it, it's normal for kids, or it used to be back then. Got it treated with cotton buds dipped in liquid nitrogen, just one treatment and a follow up visit to the hospital a week or two later just to check.
It's a fungal infection, and it seems you can freeze fungus to death with liquid nitrogen. Cool 

[continuo]

Wrong tip choice for the job, a fat hoof would be more efficient...

Sorry, I can't watch this, the preview picture is scary enough... 

[chris_leyson]

Posted by: Iwanushka

That's just plain stupid, liquid nitrogen is used for that....

Sorry man posted at the same time, it worked for me and my class mates:- I had mine removed mid 60's I think, 50 years ago nearly.

[macboy]

It's a fungal infection, and it seems you can freeze fungus to death with liquid nitrogen. Cool 

It's a virus actually, one of many strains of HPV, Human papillomavirus.  I think the treatment is a combination of damage to the virus, damage to its little protective environment that it creates for itself, and just enough damage to healthy tissue to stimulate the immune system into action in the area. Burning by heat, cold, electrocautery, or acid is usually the way. I had my childhood warts removed with the electrocautery method. Much less damage to surrounding tissue than this guy did... I think he underestimated the risk of burns merely from proximity to the hot iron for so long.

[BobsURuncle]

Thank God he didn't post his DIY  hemorrhoid treatment!

[SeanB]

Warts are a viral infection in most cases, not fungal. You can remove them easily using a sticky plaster and a plain aspirin tablet, sticking a small piece of tablet directly on top of the wart. The salicylic acid in the tablet dissolves into the wart and softens it, so it can easily be cut out after a day or two. Can be painful, but works for those that do not respond well to cryofreeze either because they are too deep or too large.

For large ones you will generally need to have a local anaesthetic injection ( hurts going in, but that is because most doctors do not know how to inject painlessly, Paediatricians learn this very fast. Tip is to first spray a little out the needle onto the skin to numb it, then wait 30 seconds, then slightly into the dermis and a small amount, then 30 seconds or spray the other side, then deeper each time into the desensitised area. Learned that from a combat RN, who also showed how to drop you with an injection as well, but who also dealt with children a lot. She had a few stories to tell) and then cut it out totally and stitch up the resulting hole.

[KL27x]

I had a large wart on the top of my thumb when I was maybe 10 or 12. It ate 5-6 of the OP's warts for breakfast. It looked like an extra knuckle. The doc used liquid nitrogen on it. The top of it died and fell off, but it just grew back bigger than before.

Well, one day I was putting my books in my school locker, and while turning away I somehow managed to catch the wart on the edge of the sheet metal frame, just right. The whole thing ripped out.

It hurt like hell, but it didn't bleed too bad. Where once was the wart was a huge, well-formed, pretty deep hole. The healthy tissue didn't peel like an orange. I didn't have flaps of bloody skin hanging off that I had to bandage back. It was just a perfect excision. I didn't even see the nurse. The wart never came back. And IIRC, it only took a week or two to heal.

[klunkerbus]

For a somewhat more palatable approach, the February 2005 issue of Nuts&Volts included a wart remover circuit that could be used to inject a wart with a low voltage signal of a particular frequency for a few minutes to kill it.  I used it on a couple of small warts - seemed to do the job.  I think I had just one that came back and required a repeat treatment. 

[MrSlack]

Duct tape worked for me. Took about a month but worked.

[Delta]

I feel really left out, I've never had a wart...

[Davecltl]

I have this open in the background while writing this post, hes certainly making some interesting noises.

[German_EE]

Yep, crazy. I have a couple of warts but I've only had one professionally removed because it was on my right eyelid. In this case liquid nitrogen was used and they were damn careful.

[MiataMuc]

Had some as a child unter my food, which then grew inwards (because of the constant pressure). They were removed by applying some acid-containing emulsion on them for weeks.

[mmagin]

It's a fungal infection, and it seems you can freeze fungus to death with liquid nitrogen. Cool 

It's a virus actually, one of many strains of HPV, Human papillomavirus.  I think the treatment is a combination of damage to the virus, damage to its little protective environment that it creates for itself, and just enough damage to healthy tissue to stimulate the immune system into action in the area. Burning by heat, cold, electrocautery, or acid is usually the way. I had my childhood warts removed with the electrocautery method. Much less damage to surrounding tissue than this guy did... I think he underestimated the risk of burns merely from proximity to the hot iron for so long.

Yep, this fits with my experience and what I've heard from doctors.  I've had some frozen off my foot when I was younger.
Though this method will work, liquid nitrogen is a lot less painful overall.

Even an upside-down can (to dispense the liquid) of the hydrofluorocarbon 'dust-off' spray seems to be moderately effective.
Usual disclaimer: Don't listen to me, I am not a doctor.

[AlxDroidDev]

As a child I had a few on my hands, elbows and knees. They were all treated with acid, with daily applications over a few weeks. One of them was more resistant to the acid, so I ended up cutting it off with a kind of xacto knife.

[wraper]

Wire cutters just don't work, tried it once, ouch.

You just did not do it the real man's way. In my childhood, I torn them out with a pliers  , The downside was a bath of blood. Though when doctors needed to take some blood for a blood test, I didn't give a shit about looking how my blood is flowing. Only doctors were afraid when I was attentively watching it, like I if should loose consciousness 

[CatalinaWOW]

Had lots of warts as a teenager.  Tried the over the counter liquid (Compound W here in the US).  Didn't ever seem to work.  Doctor used a Hifrenator (rf arc machine) on several which did the trick.  I dug others out with a knife, and tore one off by accident on a sharp corner.  I sure was glad when they stopped coming in when I approached 20.  All the mechanical removals did hurt a lot, but it was less trouble and cheaper than running down to the doctor.

[tszaboo]

That's just plain stupid, liquid nitrogen is used for that....

Pro tip: Go to very good doctor to do it. I had one on my palm! which was removed and I will have the mark of remains forever on my palm. Get a good doctor.

[liquibyte]

When I was a teenager I had one on the back of my hand that would always get caught on things, end up bleeding profusely and then grow back.  Kind of like KL27x's experience but repeatedly and always growing back.  Fed up with this after ripping the thing off again I took a pin with a metal head on it and clamped the pointy end in a pair of hemostats and heated up the head to glowing with a candle and slowly burned it off until there was no more.  I have no scar and while it did hurt somewhat, it wasn't as bad as you'd think.  I do have a high tolerance for pain though as evidenced by my ending up bleeding whenever I do anything requiring manual labor and not feeling it and only finding out later as I spot the wound bleeding.

[Hypernova]

I feel really left out, I've never had a wart...

Me too brother 

[mmagin]

Who wants to bet someone has read this thread and already tried to use RF burns to remove their wart?   

[free_electron]

some warts have their humans removed as they can be very irritating ...

[Zero999]

When I was 15 I removed a wart with a soldering iron. I'd previously tried all of the salicylic acid treatment, both over the counter and prescription and neither worked. The soldering iron did the job. It hurt but the wart fell off within a week, never to return.