Comparison of the Effects of Salicylic Acid Solution (40%) versus Cryotherapy for the Treatment of Extra-genital Wart

Warts are benign proliferations or mucosal tumors due to infection with various types of human papillomavirus that can affect the skin and mucous membranes. Some warts recover on their own without any effective treatments, but sometimes they need treatment because of pain and other problems, especially beauty issues. We aimed to compare the therapeutic effect of salicylic acid solution (40%) and cryotherapy for the treatment of skin warts.
This randomized clinical trial was carried out on patients presenting to clinics and Dermatology Department of Farshchian Hospital in Hamadan, Iran. All the patients were diagnosed with wart. Patients who met the inclusion criteria provided written informed consent. In each patient, one to three warts were randomly treated with cryotherapy and one to three others with salicylic acid solution (40%). After completion of the treatment period, we evaluated improvements and complications in the subjects. Then, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS software.
Overall, we studied 160 warts, which were randomly assigned to cryotherapy and salicylic acid solution (40%) groups (n=80 per group). Regarding the efficacy of treatment, the rates of non-healing, normal skin color, normal lines and both in the cryotherapy group were 6.2%, 27.6%, and 66.2%, respectively, and in the acid salicylic 40% group, these rates were 16.2%, 38.8%, and 42.0%, respectively (P=0.016). The incidence rates of pain, and blistering complications were significantly higher in the cryotherapy group than in the salicylic acid solution (40%) group (P The treatment of extra-genital warts with cryotherapy was more successful than treatment with salicylic acid solution (40%), and there were fewer cases of itching and hyperpigmentation in this group. However, pain and blister complications following cryotherapy were significantly higher than those in the salicylic acid solution (40%) group.