Warts: their diagnosis and treatment.

Warts are common skin lesions caused by a papova virus. Their clinical appearance is variable. There is no definitive therapy. Therapy must be individually modified to get the best result with the least discomfort to the patient. Most warts will spontaneously resolve after an average of two years, so any therapy that has serious side effects or results in scarring should not be used. New modes of therapy, particularly immunotherapy, look promising but are still in the experimental stage.