Cryotherapy for common warts

Before common warts occur, they will destroy your originally healthy skin, causing a lot of blisters and rashes on the surface of your skin. When the disease reaches a certain stage, you will find that your skin has become worse, and you will have symptoms of alternating itching and pain. In this case, only systemic treatment can control your condition and prevent it from getting worse.

The main means of treatment are to destroy warts, regulate local skin growth, and stimulate local or systemic immune responses, including systemic and local treatments.

1. Systemic treatment

(1) Traditional Chinese medicine, such as Pinggan Huoxue prescription, Zhiyou decoction, Portulaca oleracea mixture, Isatis root injection, Bupleurum injection, etc.

(2) For multiple and intractable warts, interferon can be combined with systemic or local injection of interferon. The efficacy of interferon alone is uncertain.

2. Topical medication

Since most warts disappear on their own within 1 to 2 years after onset, and even with deep destructive treatments, one-third of warts will still recur, the efficacy of various local treatments for warts should be evaluated with caution, and some methods that can cause permanent scars should not be used.

(1) Fluorouracil (5-FU) has a certain therapeutic effect. Possible adverse reactions include local pain, chapped skin, edema, allergic reaction, tearing, pigmentation and suppuration.

(2) Bleomycin is injected intralesionally once a week. Warts usually fall off after 2 to 3 injections, with few side effects.

(3) 0.7% cantharidin is added to equal amounts of collodion and acetone solution and applied externally to treat periungual warts. Apply once every other day and it has a certain effect.

(4) 0.1% to 0.3% retinoic acid alcohol solution is applied topically 1 to 2 times a day. Side effects include mild local burning sensation, redness, swelling, desquamation, and pigmentation.

(5) 3% phthalamide ointment or 3% phthalamide dimethyl sulfoxide lotion.

(6) 0.5% podophyllotoxin twice a day for 3 consecutive days. If tolerated, it can be used for 4 to 5 days. If the warts have not fallen off, you can continue the treatment every other week.

(7) 5% imiquimod cream can be used for occlusive treatment of common warts or in combination with salicylic acid treatment.

(8) Topical application of 1% cidofovir gel or intralesional injection of 2.5 mg/ml is effective for various warts.

3. Photodynamic therapy

Systemic or topical use of the photosensitizer aminolevulinic acid or aminolevulinic acid (ALA) can treat some common warts by inducing local cell death after light exposure.

4. Physical therapy

Cryotherapy, electrocautery, laser therapy, and infrared coagulation therapy are suitable for a small number of common warts.

5. Surgical Resection

It is easy to relapse after surgery.