What should you know about burning warts off?

The medical term is often electrosurgery or electrodesiccation. The clinician may numb the skin, apply a controlled electrical current through a small instrument, and remove the treated tissue. A dressing may cover the area while a superficial wound heals. The method can be considered for selected common warts, but the choice depends on the wart’s size, location, number and whether it has returned.

A wart can resemble other skin growths, so self-burning with a household object, acid, or an unregulated device can cause burns, scarring, infection or delayed diagnosis. A clinician may instead discuss freezing, topical treatment, or another removal approach.

Tell the clinician about diabetes, poor circulation, medicines that affect bleeding, allergies to local anaesthetic, and any previous reaction or scar at the site. Follow the dressing instructions, keep the area clean and dry as directed, and avoid picking the crust. Do not share towels, nail tools or footwear, because wart-causing viruses can spread through contact.

Healing commonly involves tenderness, redness, a crust and gradual skin repair. Use only the recommended pain relief and wound products. Attend any planned review so the clinician can check healing and decide whether remaining wart tissue needs treatment.

Contact the treating clinic if pain, warmth, swelling, discharge, or redness is increasing rather than settling, or if the dressing repeatedly becomes soaked with blood. Seek urgent help for heavy bleeding, spreading redness with fever, or feeling faint. Arrange assessment if the growth changes, fails to heal, or returns, because not every wart-like lesion is a wart.

Ask whether the lesion has features of a wart, why heat is suitable for its location, what scar or pigment change may occur, how to protect the wound, and what alternatives are available. You can also ask about [Electrosurgery](/treatments/surgical-dermatology/electrosurgery/), [Cryotherapy (Lesion Removal)](/treatments/surgical-dermatology/cryotherapy-lesion-removal/), [Wart Removal](/treatments/surgical-dermatology/wart-removal/) and [Imiquimod Treatment](/treatments/medical-dermatology/imiquimod-therapy/).