Plantar Warts are benign (noncancerous) growths that occur on the sole (plantar surface) of the foot. Because of their location, pressure from standing, walking and running can cause them to grow deep into the layers of the skin and become quite painful.

Causes and Avoidance

Plantar warts occur when a virus called the human papilloma virus (HPV) enters the skin at the bottom of the foot through tiny cuts or cracks. HPV is often found on wet surfaces that are likely to become contaminated, such as the tile floors of locker rooms, showers, and swimming pools. Normally, the body is able to fight it off but repeated exposure and/or a weakened immune system can increase the odds that one will get it.

While some people are just more susceptible to the virus than others, studies have found that people that use common bathing areas (such as in college dormitories) are more likely to contract the disease. This discovery has led to the general advice to use shower sandals when using such facilities, but the biggest factor determining whether or not you contract a plantar wart seems to be your personal susceptibility. Unfortunately, until you've had one, you don't know how vulnerable you are.

Diagnosis

Plantar warts are usually rough and spongy, and most are gray or brown with little darker spots. These small dark areas are the tiny capillaries that supply blood to the wart, which explains why scraping a wart may cause it to bleed. Plantar warts are shaped like icebergs, and the visible part breaching the skin is just one part of the peak and is often less than half the size of the hidden base of the wart.

Plantar warts may cause pain on the bottom of the foot, which can be the biggest concern for runners who apply immense pressure on this area several thousand times each run. Runners suffering from a plantar wart often feel a "lump" on the bottom of the foot when standing, similar to having a stone their shoe. In many cases, this pressure prevents the warts from rising above the skin surface.

If left untreated, plantar warts can grow up to 1 inch in circumference and may spread into clusters (called mosaic warts). In runners, the pain caused by landing on the foot will cause runners to alter their form unnaturally, and this change in gait or posture often results in more serious and harder to treat running injuries.

Treatment

Fortunately, treatment is usually fairly simple and only slightly painful. Topical treatments available for purchase are not recommended as they are generally not effective and can damage tissue surrounding the wart. Family doctors or podiatrists can usually remove the wart via a combination of scraping and freezing in just a few treatments. First, they scrape the wart to remove any skin protecting it and then they chemically freeze the wart in attempt to kill it. This may need to be repeated several times and in between visits they may recommend a topical treatment. Another similar treatment involves the use of lasers instead of cold. In extreme cases, surgery may be required.

A homemade remedy recommended by runners involves the use of ordinary household duct tape. To try this cure, simply wrap the infected area in duct tape for a week. After you remove the duct tape the warts should fall right off. Finally, sometimes warts will simply disappear on their own without treatment, but usually only after 1-2 years. Because of the problems that they cause to runners this is generally unacceptable.

External Links

• Images of Plantar Warts (http://images.google.com/images?q=plantar+warts&num=100&hl=en&lr=&pwst=1&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest)
• Plantar Warts at the Podiatry Channel (http://www.podiatrychannel.com/plantarwarts/)
• Plantar Warts at Skin Site (http://www.skinsite.com/info_plantar_warts.htm)
• Treating Plantar Warts with Duct Tape (http://running.syr.edu/column/20000410.html)