Moles and Wart Removal

Moles
Nevi or moles are cluster of pigmented cells which are seen on the skin as black or brown spots.  While most of the moles are harmless and benign, some could be painful, or unevenly pigmented, or unnaturally growing, itching or bleeding, which could rarely become cancerous. Moles generally increase during your adulthood and it may grow in color and size. A mole is formed when a group of cells called melanocytes come together and grow in a cluster at a particular spot on body. It’s always good to have a mole check at your doctor’s office regularly.

Mole Removal
Moles are removed for cosmetic as well as medical reasons. Consult your doctor if you are worried about a raised, itchy mole which may have suddenly increased in size or changed color.
Moles are usually removed under local anesthesia to increase the comfort level of the patient. At Gawai Healthcare, we use USFDA approved CO2 Laser for mole removal and other ablative procedures. Advantage being it creates only minimal discomfort to the patient. It’s an outpatient procedure, means that you can go about your daily activities almost immediately after the procedure. The risk of any infection is almost zero. Technology of CO2 laser allows it to target even the deepest mole, including the ones that aren’t easy to reach using other methods.
After the mole has been sterilized and numbed, we will then activate the CO2 laser and focus it on mole. The laser energy will cause ablation of the mole tissue in a precise and safe method. 
Patients are advised to keep good care of the site of procedure for three weeks. The risk of post treatment marks in the region are virtually nil at 1%, which is far more favorable than if you go a different route of surgical removal or electro-cauterization.
Removed moles are usually sent to the laboratory for pathological analysis if it is advised by your doctor.

Wart
The common wart, verruca vulgaris, is an infection on skin from Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which manifest in the form of surface thickening with a rounded shape. They usually have a rougher surface and different color to that of surrounding healthy skin.

How does it occur?
Contagion occurs by direct contact of existing warts on healthy skin or viruses recently scattered that are still active under certain favorable conditions of temperature and humidity. For this reason it is more common for them to appear in patients in immunodeficiency states, during pregnancy or by intimate interpersonal contact. They present marked tropism on the skin and mucosal epithelium. The infection is very common and its transmission depends on several factors, such as the location of the injury, the amount of virus present, the type and nature of the contact and the immunological status of the exposed individuals.
Warts are usually formed on the face, fingers, and toes, particularly of children. A warty skin lesion is vascular &having blood supply at the dermo-epidermal junction. Removal of the wart with incision may lead to spreading of infection to other healthy areas of skin.

When to consult your doctor
It is important to consult your doctor in the following cases:

1. If there is pain, symptoms of infection or bleeding in the area of the wart.
2. If there are changes in its color or appearance.
3. If after applying topical pharmaceutical treatments the wart has not been eliminated.
4. Whenever the patient present warts in the genital or anal regions.
5. Warts that appear on patients with immune deficiency or diabetes.

Wart removal with a co2 laser is most advanced laser treatment which cuts and vaporizes the central portion of the wart tissue till normal tissue architecture is seen. The CO2 beam can be defocused to achieve immediate coagulation of the blood on the area. This is the fastest method of wart removal.

Advantages of CO2 laser over other techniques: minimized charring with faster healing which increases patient’s compliance for treatment.