Verruca Treatment
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Package leaflet: Information for the user
AVOCA
3 How to use Avoca
Always use this medicine exactly as your doctor or pharmacist has told you. Check with your doctor or pharmacist if you are not sure.
Caustic Pencil 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick Wart & Verruca Treatment 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick Caustic Applicator 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick Caustic Applicator 75% w/w Cutaneous Stick Caustic Pencil 40% w/w Cutaneous Stick
Silver nitrate
Read all of this leaflet carefully before you start using this medicine because it contains important information for you.
Always use this this medicine exactly as described in this leaflet or as your doctor, pharmacist or nurse has told you.
• Keep this leaflet. You may need to read it again.
• Ask your pharmacist if you need more information or advice.
• If you get any side effects, talk to your doctor, pharmacist or nurse. This includes any possible side effects not listed in this leaflet. See section 4.
• You must talk to a doctor if you do not feel better or if you feel worse after 3 days for wart treatment or 6 days for verruca treatment.
What is in this leaflet:
1 What Avoca is and what it is used for
2 What you need to know before you use Avoca
3 How to use Avoca
4 Possible side effects
5 How to store Avoca
6 Contents of the pack and other information
1 What Avoca is and what it is used for
The name of your medicine is Avoca. It is available in the following packs:
Avoca Caustic Pencil 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick Avoca Wart & Verruca Treatment 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick Avoca Caustic Applicator 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick Avoca Caustic Applicator 75 % w/w Cutaneous Stick Avoca Caustic Pencil 40% w/w Cutaneous Stick
All packs are called Avoca in this leaflet. Avoca contains a medicine called silver nitrate.
Avoca is used for removing warts including verrucas and excess tissue, for example tissue that forms during the healing process of wounds.
Avoca works by destroying tissue on the surface layers of warts and verrucas.
2 What you need to know before you use Avoca
Do not use Avoca:
- if you are allergic to silver nitrate or any of the other ingredients of this medicine (listed in Section 6).
Warnings and precautions
Do not use near your eyes
Do not use on genital warts
Do not use on sensitive areas of your body
Avoca is caustic (can burn) and can cause staining. Do not use
Avoca over bathroom or kitchen fittings or carpets.
Other medicines and Avoca
Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are using, have recently used or might use any other medicines.
Pregnancy and breast-feeding
If you are pregnant or breast feeding, think you may be pregnant or are planning to have a baby, ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice before taking this medicine.
Avoca contains potassium nitrate
The recommended dose is:
Apply once daily for 3 days for wart treatment. Apply once daily for 6 days for verruca treatment.
If your symptoms carry on or do not improve after this number of applications, you should talk to your doctor or pharmacist.
You will need the following before you start:
• A small amount of clean water such as tap water. Do not use saline solution or water known to contain salt or chlorides
• A clean non-absorbent surface such as an upturned drinking glass or steel cup
• A paper tissue
• Petroleum jelly
• A firm surface to work on such as a table. Spread the newspaper over the table. Do not use your medicine over bathroom or kitchen fittings or carpets. Most surfaces touched by silver nitrate dissolved in water will be stained black or grey.
• Newspaper or similar to protect the table from drops of water containing silver nitrate
How to apply this medicine:
1 Put a single drop of clean water on a non-absorbent surface such as an upturned drinking glass or steel cup (see Figure 1)
2 Dip the tip in the drop of water. Gently move the tip in the water for a minute (see Figure 2)
3 The tip is now coated in water containing silver nitrate (see Figure 3)
4 Do not allow the water or tip to touch healthy skin or tissue
5 Protect healthy skin around the area to be treated with a thin layer of petroleum jelly (see Figure 4)
6 Roll the tip on the area to be treated to transfer water from the tip to the surface of the area (see Figure 5)
7 Allow the treated area to dry before contact with any other surface (see Figure 6)
8 Using a paper tissue, dry the tip of the pencil and the non-absorbent surface. Dispose of the paper tissue
9 Over 24 hours and following exposure to light, any surface touched by the water or wet tip may be stained black
10 After 24 hours, the black surface of the treated skin should be filed away with a course nail buffer or fine emery board.
11 The remaining wart/verruca should be treated again.
If you use more Avoca than you should
If you use more Avoca than you should or you swallow it by accident, tell a doctor or go to a hospital casualty department straight away.
Take the medicine pack with you. This is so the doctor knows what you have used. The following effects may happen: burning or stinging.
If swallowed you may also have pain in the mouth, produce more saliva, diarrhoea, feeling sick, being sick (vomit may be stained black), loss of consciousness or fits.
Marketing Authorisation Holder and Manufacturer
Bray Group Limited 1 Regal Way Faringdon Oxfordshire SN77BX
Telephone +44 (0) 1367 240 736 Email info@bray-healthcare.com
This leaflet was last revised in March 2014
If you forget to use Avoca
Do not apply a double dose to make up for a forgotten application.
4 Possible side effects
Like all medicines, this medicine can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them.
Reporting of side effects
If you get any side effects, talk to your doctor, pharmacist or nurse. This includes any possible side effects not listed in this leaflet.
You can also report side effects directly via the Yellow Card Scheme website: www.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcard.
By reporting side effects you can help provide more information on the safety of this medicine.
5 How to store Avoca
Keep this medicine out of the sight and reach of children.
Do not use this medicine after the expiry date which is stated on the label and carton after EXP. The expiry date refers to the last day of that month.
Store protected from light and moisture.
Do not throw away any medicines via wastewater or household waste. Ask your pharmacist how to throw away medicines you no longer use. These measures will help to protect the environment.
6 Contents of the pack and other information
What Avoca contains
• The active substance is silver nitrate
• The other ingredient is potassium nitrate
What Avoca looks like and contents of the pack
• Avoca Caustic Pencil 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick is available in a carton containing a blue plastic container and push-on cap.
• Avoca Wart & Verruca Treatment 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick is available in a carton containing a blue plastic container and push-on cap. It is supplied with 1 emery file.
• Avoca Caustic Applicator 95% w/w Cutaneous Stick is available in a carton containing 100 applicators. Each applicator is a 15cm long flexible blue plastic handle with a treated tip.
• Avoca Caustic Applicator 75 % w/w Cutaneous Stick is available in a carton containing either 50 or 100 applicators.
Each applicator is a 15cm long flexible yellow plastic handle with a treated tip.
• Avoca Caustic Pencil 40% w/w Cutaneous Stick is available in a carton containing a red plastic container and push-on cap.