The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7213 p269
31 August 2002

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Evidence for wart treatments is lacking

There is no evidence to suggest that wart treatments such as cryotherapy are more effective than simple topical preparations containing salicylic acid, a group of British researchers concludes (BMJ 2002;325:461).

They reviewed 50 trials of local treatment for cutaneous warts and found most of the evidence from these trials was of poor quality as a result of poor methodology and reporting. The best evidence was for topical treatments containing salicylic acid — data pooled from six placebo-controlled trials showed a cure rate of 75 per cent among the treated group compared with 48 per cent among controls. There was also some evidence to support the efficacy of contact immunotherapy with dinitrochlorobenzene.

Although it is believed that cryotherapy can succeed where topical salicylic acid has failed, the research team found no clear evidence to support this and say that at best, cryotherapy is only equal in efficacy to topical salicylic acid. In addition, they say that evidence for the efficacy of intralesional bleomycin, a popular third line treatment, is limited. They add that photodynamic therapy and pulsed dye lasers could hold promise for the future.