Prof Harry: That’s a wart underneath the sole of the foot, very common indeed.

Annabel: The doctor removed it surgically.

Prof Harry: Was it under general anaesthetic?

Annabel: Yes, because it was pretty deep. I don’t know if it has recurred because when I walk on my foot, I can’t walk bare feet now. It burns like fire under my feet.

Prof Harry: How long ago did that start?

Annabel: About a year ago. I went to the GP and he said to me that he’s not doing anything to it because he doesn’t believe in operating underneath the foot. I don’t know what to do about it.

Prof Harry: These Planter warts, like common warts, are due to a virus. We don’t really have anything which can guarantee a cure — whether you use surgery or whether you use the various topical treatments which you apply in order to soften these warts. And in time they will get better as a result of the body developing immunity to the wart. But that may take time and they may recur. And I think that wart which was removed surgically has recurred, that’s the one possibility. If you do surgery, especially a quite extensive surgery, then you can also have a complication of the surgery, namely that you get healing but healing by scarring. So that’s why in general we do not like to treat these Planter warts with surgery under a general anaesthetic. We like to treat them conservatively in the knowledge that if you try one thing after another, they may recur but eventually you will get the condition under control. And it is only in a very small percentage that you should have surgery under general anaesthetic.

Annabel: What should I do?

Prof Harry: I think you should go and see a dermatologist.