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The response to the question below was authored by Marc Mitnick DPM

Pinky toe lump

by Shaun
(Minnesota, U.S)

Pinky toe wart

This problem of mine began around 6 months ago, i notice by the way i sat and studied i leaned heavily on my pinky toe. After a while it began to hurt so i stopped doing it. Later it lost its smooth surface as shown in the picture after i went tubing along with small black objects within it. It doesn't hurt to the touch but if i put any force on it i feel great pain. My family and others have told me its just a simple corn which i have never heard of. But supposedly it should go away if left alone and kept dry. However I've had this for nearly half a year now and i haven't seen it decrease in size. I will be getting a corn pad here soon to see if that does the trick, but would like to get a second opinion because i have my doubts.

RESPONSE

Hi Shaun,

You have a wart. At least from the picture you supplied, it looks like a classic wart.

Warts are caused by a virus. I doubt that leaning on it or tubing caused the wart to form. They can occur spontaneously and are very common on the foot.

There are two issues here. One, it hurts. That in itself is a good reason to have it treated by a doctor, also to make sure that it is actually a wart.

Secondly, warts have a tendency to spread. It does not spread in every one who has a wart but it is a relatively common phenomenon. Obviously one wart is much easier to treat that lets say ten to twenty warts.

I see many people, primarily kids who come in with what seems like an endless amount of warts and in every case they started out with one solitary wart.

There are numerous ways to treat warts which tells you there is no one acceptable way to treat them. That is because they can be difficult to get rid of.

Sometimes they will spontaneously disappear almost as quickly as they appeared.

If yours did not hurt you might be able to just wait and see what happens, but because there is pain when you touch it and I assume also when your toe hits the end of your shoe, it would probably be a wise idea to have it treated now.

Marc Mitnick DPM
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ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

Mayo Clinic

Johns Hopkins Medicine

MedlinePlus

Arthritis Foundation

University of Rochester Medical Center

Harvard Health

Drugs.com

American Academy of Pediatrics

Penn State Medical Center

National Institutes of Health

Columbia University Department of Rehabilitation

ScienceDirect

Stanford Health Care

Illinois Bone and Joint Institute

Mount Sinai Hospital

Institute for Chronic Pain

University of Florida Health

American Family Physician

Cedars-Sinai

University of Maryland Medical Center

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Pinky toe lump

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