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Skin Conditions
Skin conditions such as condylomas, warts, skin tags and hyperkeratoses can be removed painlessly and non-surgically using laser C02, cryotherapyand plasma.
Why remove them
Skin conditions such as warts, hyperkeratoses, papillomas and condylomas are quite common and require an appropriate dermatological treatment.
Warts
Awart is a skin growth caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).
It is a viral infection causing skin cells to multiply, resulting in growths (lumps).
There are three types of warts: common warts, usually appearing on the hands, flat warts most commonly appearing on the face, and plantar warts which appear on the soles of the feet and are persistent and painful.
HPV is a contagious virus, usually spread through objects and surfaces (gym, swimming pool) or by direct contact, but requires an abrasion on the skin.
On rare occasions, warts may disappear on their own but usually require treatment.
Condylomas
Condylomas is an equally common condition caused by the HPV virus, but by different types than those responsible for warts.
The most common type of condylomas is the condylomata acuminata, genital warts spread through sexual intercourse (even if protection is used) which may also appear around the rectum and mouth.
90% of condylomata is caused by HPV benign types 6 and 11. The specialist dealing with cervical condylomata is the gynaecologist, who does the identification, treatment and monitoring. Generally, if your sexual partner has obvious condylomas, there is a 60-70% chance that you can become infected.
A period of at least 6 months without any visible signs is required before we can say that the virus has probably receded and cannot be transmitted (special tests such as the mRNA test are used to show us precisely the dynamics of the virus and how active it is).
Smoking, stress, diabetes mellitus, AIDS are several factors that weaken our immune system and make us vulnerable to condylomas while at the same time slowing down the response of our treatment (a weak immune system increases the risk of recurrence). The treatment of choice for condylomas is either cryotherapy or laser CO2.
In some cases, a local treatment before or after may be in order.
Papillomas
Papillomas or acrochorda are benign tumours on the skin unrelated to the HPV virus. They are commonly called skin tags because they usually have the same colour as our skin.
Skin tags are often numerous and small, growing in the neck area.
They can also be found around the eyes, on the torso, in the armpits, under the breasts. The problems they cause are mostly of a cosmetic nature, and sometimes of a functional nature (e.g. they may be in areas where our movements cause the moles to be irritated and bleed).
Papillomas may increase in number if left untreated.
Seborrheic hyperkeratoses
Seborrheic hyperkeratoses are benign skin lesions that have been shown to occur with increasing age.
They most commonly appear on the torso and face and look like brown- or black-coloured lesions, while on the back they may appear in a “Christmas tree” pattern.
On the rarest of occasions, the sudden appearance of multiple seborrheic hyperkeratoses is combined with a paraneoplastic syndrome such as Leser-Trelat.
Skin condition treatments
The available treatments for condylomata, warts, hyperkeratoses, papillomas are the following:
a) Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy is one of the fundamental therapeutic treatments of interventional dermatology and has been applied to numerous dermatological conditions for decades. In particular, cryotherapy is used for treating papillomas, warts, condylomas, seborrheic hyperkeratoses, keloids, mucous cyst, angiokeratomas, venous lake, actinic hyperkeratoses, cutaneous horn, basal cell carcinoma.
Liquid nitrogen is used as a cryogen at -196ο C. It freezes and selectively destroys tissue, therefore it is directly applied to the lesions sprayed.
Your dermatologist will instruct you about healing and the number of cryotherapy sessions required. Depending on the type and depth of the lesion, there may be erythema, oedema, blisters, ulceration for a few days.
b) Laser CO2
Laser CO2 SmartXide DEKA is one of the most powerful interventional lasers for skin ablation. The beam is absorbed by the water, enabling us to destroy lesions with great precision such as papillomas, condylomas, seborrheic hyperkeratoses, warts, xanthelasma. The advantage of the fractional laser CO2 is that it is safe, effective in just one session, without leaving traces or scars afterwards.
A laser C02 SmartXide treatment is effected upon local anaesthesia so as to be painless.
c) Plasma therapy
Plasma is the 4th dimension of matter. The energy produced by gas ionization is used to selectively ablate tissue.
It is therefore possible to destroy skin lesions with much higher precision and less thermal injury than laser CO2.
Plasma is also ideal for malignant lesions and, depending on its technology, can also be applied even on mildly shiny days and on darker skins.
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