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Duct Tape for Warts  

The Efficacy of Duct Tape vs. Cryotherapy in the Treatment of Verruca Vulgaris (the Common Wart). Focht  DR, Spicer C, and Fairchok MP. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2002; 156: 971-977.

Objective: To determine if application of duct tape is as effective as cryotherapy in the treatment of common warts.

 Methods: A total of 61 patients (age range, 3-22 years) were randomized to receive either cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen applied to each wart for 10 seconds every 2-3 weeks) for a maximum of 6 treatments or duct tape occlusion (applied directly to the wart) for a maximum of 2 months. Patients had their warts measured at baseline and with return visits.

Results: Of the 51 patients completing the study, 26 (51%) were treated with duct tape, and 25 (49%) were treated with cryotherapy. Twenty-two patients (85%) in the duct tape arm vs. 15 patients (60%) enrolled in the cryotherapy arm had complete resolution of their warts (P = .05 by [chi]2 analysis). The majority of warts that responded to either therapy did so within the first month of treatment.

Conclusion: Duct tape occlusion therapy was significantly more effective than cryotherapy for treatment of the common wart.

Comment.  I know that this is definitely not a perinatal or neonatal topic, but I just couldn’t resist the temptation to review this study.  It seems we now have 102 Uses for Duct Tape!  In case you’re interested, the duct tape was removed every 6 days, and the wart was soaked in water and debrided with an emery board or pumice stone.  The duct tape was then re-applied after 12 hours.  Don’t try this on genital warts!  ABK.

Additional Comments:

Date:        16 Apr 2004
Time:        15:22:08

My son had a large wart that had been under treatment for two months using compoundW with little results.  I was told about using duct tape and so that very day I applied the duct tape and by the next day the wart was falling apart.  By the second day I can only describe it as having completely killed the wart and moved to a healing phase.  It was all healed within a week.  The wart went from a large hard pencil eraser object to what I can only describe as shredded.

UserName:    Craig Warthen
Institution: Arrow Electronics
telephone:   303.824.3613
email:       cwarthen@arrow.com


Date:        26 Apr 2005
Time:        20:45:09

Comments:

As this is an experiment for someone, I couldn't help in sending my results.  I had 3 warts on my hands for months, and I even went to the doctor twice.  there were two doctors that did not want to tend to them as they were afraid of a rather large one being on my cutical.  After finally finding a doctor to tend to them, the "freezing" process was effective, but only shrunk the warts enough for them to grow back later in the month.  My GRANDMOTHER told me of this method, as she used it as a little girl.  I tried it, and it was better than anything I had ever tried.  Much better than sitting in the waiting room for something so simple!  It works PERIOD. If the test prove positive results or negative, I have PROVEN it a true method of curing warts.  I randomly changed the tape as I felt nessecary; being maybe twice a day.  To save people the embarrasment of having duct tape on one's hand, tell them it was a "papercut" that wouldnt stop bleeding and duct tape was all that you had as you were out of band-aids:)

UserName:    Pearson Warren
Institution: Auburn University
telephone:   256-777-7284
email:       warrejp@auburn.edu


Date:        18 May 2005
Time:        09:15:39

My Human A&P teacher was talking to us about warts and we all wanted to know how to get rid of warts. She said that someone had once told her that if you put a small piece of duct tape<just enough to cover it>on a wart and cover the duct tape with a bandaid, it would go away in a week. She said she tried it and it worked. So just a few days ago, my little cousin had a wart and my aunt didn't know what to do because all the medication that she had given her didn't work. I told her to let me take care of it, so I went about the process as told by my teacher and within days, the wart had fallen off when the duct tape was removed. I believe that old people think of strange things but then again, they tells the truth.

UserName:    Laura Johnson
Institution: School
telephone:   662-673-1343
email:       jadah06@yahoo.com


Date: 24 May 2005
Time: 04:01:45

Comments

I had 3 warts 2 on one foot heal and 1 one the other foot under the 2 middle toes. It felt like i was walking on rocks and had me in tears every day. Had no medical and no money. and a friend told me about duct tape and i laughed. and said i will try anything once. let me tell you it was so bad i could walk at the end at all. i put duct tape on my feet. and one week later i am pain free and wart is so little i am a believer. true and true.

UserName: Janine Varian
Institution: home maker
telephone: 419-209-0903
email: mystery_star69@hotmail.com


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