COMPARISON OF EFFICACY OF 40% TOPOICAL SALICYLIC ACID AND CRYOTHERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH PALMOPLANTAR WARTS.

Abstract

Background; Palmoplantar warts (verrucae) are extremely common. Although many will spontaneously disappear without treatment, treatment may be sought for a variety of reasons such as discomfort. There are a number of different treatments for cutaneous warts, with salicylic acid and cryotherapy using liquid nitrogen being two of the most common forms of treatment. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of 40% topical salicylic acid versus cryotherapy in the treatment of palmoplantar warts. Study Setting; Department of General Medicine, Nishtar Hospital, Multan, which is a tertiary care Hospital. Study Design; Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). Results; Of these 102 study cases, 57 (55.9%) were males and 45 (44.1%) were females. Mean age of our study cases was 25.22 ± 6.03 years Mean weight of our study cases was 61.42 ± 10.39 kilograms. Mean weight in group A was 61.25 ± 10.44 kilograms while in Group B was 61.59 ± 10.46 kilograms (p= 0.872). Size of lesion was equally distributed as in 51 (50%) of our study cases it was less than 1 centimeters while in remaining 50 % was in the range of 1 to 1.5 centimeters. In 78 (76.5%) of our study cases, number of lesions was 1- 3 and mean no. of lesions was 2.48 ± 1.35. Mean duration of disease was 4.72 ± 2.90 weeks (with minimum duration was 1 week while maximum duration was 10 weeks). In group A treated with salicylic acid, efficacy was noted in 34 (66.7%) of our study cases, while in group B treated with cryotherapy, efficacy was seen in 29 (56.9%) of our study cases.

Conclusion; Efficacy of 40 % topical salicylic acid is more than cryotherapy. It can be safely used for the treatment of plantar warts, as no serious side effects were observed in our study. Being cost effective, it provides cheaper treatment option compared with cryotherapy which is quite expensive. Early treatment can help patients to maintain routine daily lives and physical activities such as sports without any pain and side effects.

Keywords; Salicylic acid, Cryotherapy, warts.