CINCINNATI -- A physician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has determined that a novel way of treating warts -- duct tape -- is less expensive, less painful and more convenient than currently used methods.

“We don’t know for sure why it works, but it may involve stimulation of the patient’s immune system through local irritation,” says Rick Focht, MD, a fellow in the division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Cincinnati Children’s and the study’s lead author.  The study is published in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

A variety of therapies are used to treat warts, with varying success rates.  The current treatment of choice is cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen.  This method involves freezing a wart with liquid nitrogen for 10 to 20 seconds every two to three weeks.  A major drawback of this procedure is that children with warts experience a burning discomfort and are quite fearful of the therapy.  In addition, cryotherapy requires frequent clinic visits for success.

Although there had been reports of tape occlusion therapy to treat warts, it had never been studied, at least until Dr. Focht came along.  He recruited 61 patients between the ages of 3 and 22, and 51 completed the study.  These patients were divided into two groups, with 25 receiving cryotherapy and 26 sent home with a supply of standard duct tape.

The first piece of duct tape, cut as close to the size of the wart as possible, was applied in the outpatient setting by a nurse.  Patients or their parents were told to leave the tape in place for six days. 

After six days, they removed the tape, soaked the area in water and gently “debrided” the wart with an emery board or pumice stone.  The tape was left off overnight and reapplied the following morning.  The treatment was continued for up to two months, or until the wart resolved, whichever came first.

Tape occlusion therapy was “significantly more effective” than cryotherapy, according to Dr. Focht.  Warts went away in 22 of the 26 patients who used duct tape, and most warts disappeared within 28 days of initiating therapy.  Only 15 of the 26 who received cryotherapy experienced complete resolution of their warts.

“Duct tape is more practical for parents and patients to use,” says Dr. Focht.  “There was also better compliance in our study within the duct tape group, primarily due to ease of administration.”