Stubborn verruca? Fry it with microwaves

BRITISH scientists have hailed a new method of getting rid of stubborn verrucas – by zapping them with microwaves.

They say the technique is far more effective than traditional methods, such as burning them with acid and freezing them with liquid nitrogen, and have achieved a success rate of more than 75 per cent.

They also say the microwave beams can help destroy verrucas that have troubled their hosts for decades.

It involves blasting the troublesome area with a beam of microwave energy for five seconds at a time. Three treatments, spaced out over monthly intervals, are usually enough to see them disappear, said Dr Ivan Bristow, a podiatrist who has helped pioneer the technique at The Chiropody Surgery in Lymington, Hampshire.

He explained how the narrow beams of microwave energy heated the verruca up to 70C, ‘creating cell damage which brings about inflammation in the tissue’. ‘We believe that makes the body’s immune system spring into life, so it recognises that it has to fight an infection,’ he said. ‘So it’s not so much that the microwaves directly destroy the wart, but that they trigger the body to fight it.’

Dr Bristow said patients did experience a ‘hard bite’ of pain for two or three seconds as their verruca was heated up – but any discomfort soon disappeared.

The technique is the brainchild of Scottish physicists Gary Beale and Eamon McErlean. They have since set up a company, called Emblation, based in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, which develops microwave generators for medical applications.

Mr Beale said a clinical study showed that their microwave machines achieved a 78 per cent success rate at treating stubborn verrucas. He also said the method, which costs about £300 for a course of three sessions, had been tested on adults but could be used on children too.