CONDYLOMATA.
Condyloma, from kondulos Gr., a “knot,” or “tubercle,” may be applied to any small, hard tumor, flaps, tabs of flesh or wart-like excrescence about the anus, whether of syphilitic or non-syphilitic origin.
They may take the form of one of the radiating folds, or flattened transversly by the pressure of the buttocks, and consist of a hypertrophy of the skin from localized inflammation or irritation, and sometimes continue to grow after the cause has been removed.
A cutaneous tag as a relic of an external hemorrhoid, after it has lost its identity and become dense in structure, is properly a condyloma; also a warty vegetation developed from the papillary layer of the derma. Certain forms of condylomata are pathognomonic of ulceration and other serious changes going on above. The discharge at the anus producing these fleshy tags.
Some writers prefer to limit the meaning of the word to certain varieties of growths about the anus. But it appears less liable to confuse, to use it in a literal and a generic sense; making the varieties associated with their causes, qualifying terms: as syphilitic, non-syphilitic, warty, cancerous, innocent, etc.
The objection to cocainizing condylomatous growths of any size, and excising them, is the annoyance from the bleeding that sometimes follows, which will often break through a heavy crust of Monsels’ salt. The prettiest way to remove them is by galvano-cautery. When electricity is not at hand, carbolic acid injection is equally as effective. It may be necessary where the skin is thick and horny in texture, to afterwards trim off the remaining ragged edges with the scissors.