Topic Overview

Electrosurgery is a procedure that involves burning the skin that contains a wart. This is done with an electrical charge sent through the tip of a needle, drying and burning off the wart tissue. The skin around the wart must first be numbed with a painful local anesthetic injection.

Electrosurgery can be used for a single wart or a few warts but not for large areas of warts. It often leaves a scar, and warts can return after treatment.

Curettage is the surgical removal (scraping or cutting) of wart tissue using a scalpel or a small, sharp, spoon-shaped tool. This procedure may be painful and can cause scarring. Curettage usually requires local anesthetic, except in the case of filiform warts, which have only a small connection to the skin. Curettage is a quick treatment to remove warts, but recurrence of warts is common.

Electrosurgery and curettage are sometimes used together to treat large warts and increase the chance of successful wart removal.