This website is about seborrhoeic keratoses, what they are and how they can be removed without surgery, surgical incision or scarring.


Seborrhoeic Keratosis


What is a Seborrhoeic Keratosis (senile wart / seborrhoeic wart) ?

Seborrhoeic keratosis usually appear on the skin of adults as a brown crusty spot or lump. Although they are usually quite distinctive both by being dark brown and with a hard crust, they can occasionally be more flesh coloured or can be much darker, almost black.

Seborrhoeic keratosis can be a very variable shape. Often they are round but they can be elongated into an elipse or oval, or sometimes a more irregular shape. Although they can occasionally occur by themselves, usually there are several on each patient - sometime there can be a great many of them.

They are more common the older one gets and they used to be called "senile warts" or "seborrhoeic warts". They are almost always found in over 40-year-olds and the older we get, the more likely we are likely to have seborrhoeic keratosis. Nowadays the term "senile" has been dropped from their name as it is inappropriate and causes offence -especially as it is incorrect - 40 years old not really being senile!!

In addition to this, despite their other names, they are also not warts as they are NOT caused by the wart virus (HPV or Human Papilloma Virus). They are instead of just over growths of certain cells in the skin layer, called "basal cells". As such, they are also not infectious and cannot be spread from person to person.

Normal skin has the living basal cells at the bottom of the epidermis and, as the cells grow and mature, they work their way towards the surface of the skin. At a certain point, they die and just leave a keratin layer. This layer acts as a protective layer for the skin. In areas of friction, such as knuckles, heels or knees, this layer can become quite thickened. Manual workers often have very thickened keratin layers over their hands as they use their hands for hard work.

In seborrhoeic keratosis, the abnormally growing basal cells produce abnormal amounts of keratin. This is what gives the crusty layer on top of the seborrhoeic keratosis.