Effectiveness of autoimplantation in the treatment of multiple cutaneous warts

Viral warts are a common presentation to a dermatological practice. The standard treatment is freezing with liquid nitrogen which is a physical ablative method. Viral wart autoimplnation is a known method in the treatment of viral warts, but not very popular in day to day practice.

A randomized controlled trial was carried out to assess the efficacy and complications of auto wart implantation when compared to cryotherapy. A total of 120 patients were randomly allocated to the two treatment arms and the response to treatment was assessed monthly for 12 weeks. At the end of 12weeks 90.7% of patients who received cryotherapy and 36.7% of patients who had autoimplantation had complete response (p< 0.01). The side effects were less in autoimplantation when compared to cryotherapy.

Cryotherapy gives significantly higher rates of complete response in treating viral warts when compared to autoimplantation. Although inferior to cryotherapy autoimplantation could be useful in selected cases of viral warts as a treatment option.