Austin Podiatry House
Calls
Calluses and Corns:
Calluses and Corns are similar in that they are made out of hard callused skin. They can be mild and asymptomatic, or they can hurt just as much as a pebble in your shoe does. Many of our mobile podiatry footcare patients benefit from getting their calluses treated. In time, some even resolve or grow back reduced.
For some people, a hard central core can form that is very painful. The lesions can form under the soles of the feet, on the heels, between the toes, and on top of the toes where shoes rub.
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Callus care is included in our initial and routine visits. We've seen clients that need them shaved and filed down monthly, weekly, or several months apart. Calluses can cause pressure on the skin beneath them and heel calluses can crack, leaving the feet susceptible to wounds and infections. Because of this, it is important to treat them.
Are Calluses the same as Warts?
No. Warts are caused by a viral infection and can spread. Regular calluses are not contagious. Also, a simple way to identify warts vs calluses is to look for skin lines. If you zoom into the picture here, you can see skin lines within the lesions. That means the lesions are calluses, not warts. Warts do not have skin lines and also often have little dark spots in them.
Foot Wounds / Ulcerations:
A Foot Ulceration is an open sore on the foot or heel and they can vary from a superficial clean lesion to a deep infected lesion that can have an abscess. Treatments for these vary, many of them taken care of weekly until they heal.
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These are often created by pressure (example: a bedsore). Removing the source of pressure is an important part of getting them to heal. Many factors can influence wound healing: circulation, nutrition, blood sugar levels, neurological status, wound flora - all of these are contributing factors. (The larger wound in the picture to the right here was most likely formed from on a person with deficient circulation and walking on an the pressure of an untreated callus.)
