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Duct Tape May Destroy Common Warts

Study: Tape Works As Well As Liquid Nitrogen

Want to remove a wart? Skip the doctor's office and go straight to the duct tape, some researchers say.

Covering a wart with a piece of duct tape may be as effective in getting rid of it as liquid-nitrogen freezing, according to an article in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

According to the article, the common wart, or Verruca vulgaris, occurs in 5 to 10 percent of all children. There are several therapies available for warts, but the current treatment of choice in many pediatricians' offices is "freezing a wart," or cryotherapy, in which liquid nitrogen is applied to the wart for 10 to 20 seconds every two to three weeks.

But cryotherapy can be painful and frightening, especially for small children, and may cause blisters or infection.

Researchers from Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., studied 51 patients ages 3 to 22 with common warts. Twenty-six patients were treated with duct tape and 25 were treated with liquid nitrogen, or cryotherapy.

Patients in the tape group -- or their parents -- were told to leave the tape in place for six days, and to replace it if it fell off. After six days, they were told to remove the tape, soak the area in water, and file the wart with an emery board or pumice stone. After 12 hours without the duct tape, they were told to put a new piece on the wart, and continue the cycle for two months or until the wart was gone.

Patients in the cryotherapy group received a standard application of liquid nitrogen on the wart for 10 seconds. Patients -- or their parents -- were told to return to the clinic every two to three weeks to repeat the freeze for a maximum of six treatments or until the wart was gone.

The researchers found that the duct tape treatment completely removed warts in 22 of 26 patients, while the liquid nitrogen treatment removed warts in 15 of 25 patients.

Researchers said the time it takes for the warts to disappear using the two treatments is comparable. Warts treated with duct tape disappeared within 28 days after beginning the treatment, while the majority of warts treated with cryotherapy disappeared after two treatments, spaced at least two weeks apart.

-- Anonymous, October 15, 2002