Intralesional Acyclovir for Cutaneous Warts

Abstract

Cutaneous warts are a common skin problem in routine dermatological practice. There are many clinical modalities, but there are failure and recurrence. The current study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intralesional acyclovir in treating cutaneous warts. An analytic clinical trial study was conducted in Iraq/Baghdad/Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital from November 2021 to May 2022. The current study adopted A convenient sampling method to enroll 30 patients with cutaneous warts. The patients had intralesional acyclovir (70 mg/ml) injected into warts. The treatment was repeated at two-week intervals until complete clearance or for a maximum of 5 sessions. According to the current study's results, 30 patients were enrolled in the current study. The mean age was 23.7 (±12.7) years. Most of the patients had an age of more than 14 years. Females constituted more than half of the sample. Regarding the treatment outcome, 19 (63.3%) patients were cured, and 10 (33.3%) failed to cure. In comparison, one patient had a recurrence after being cured in three sessions. Regarding the patients who were cured, 8 (42.1%) patients were cured in two sessions, 6 (31.6%) were cured in three sessions, 2 (10.5%) were cured in one session, and 2 (10.5%) patients were cured in four sessions. In contrast, 1 (5.3%) patient was cured in five sessions. Severe pain during injection was the commonest side effect (66.6%), followed by bullous reaction (30%0), bleeding at the site of injection (20.0), and pain for a few days (16.7%). In conclusion, intralesional acyclovir was found to be effective and safe with few and transient side effects. Keyword: Cutaneous; Patients; Bleeding.