Abstract
Background: Viral warts are a prevalent infection that affects people all over the world. Unfortunately, there is no proven antiviral treatment for them. Recalcitrant warts are also difficult to resolve and deciding on a strategy for their treatment is challenging. Recently immunotherapy modalities have led to desired treatment outcomes in patients. This study investigated the efficacy of vitamin D injection (as an immunotherapeutic agent) in the treatment of recalcitrant warts.
Methods: In this clinical trial study, 40 patients were divided into two groups: the first group (intervention group) received cryotherapy with an intralesional injection of vitamin D3 (0.1 cc of vitamin D3 (300000 IU/1mL) per lesion and a maximum of 0.5 cc per session), and the second group (control group) received just cryotherapy. In each treatment session, patients were evaluated for treatment responses and any side effects. Each patient received four treatment sessions at 2-week intervals.
Results: After 4 treatment sessions, the rate of response in the intervention group and the group that received just cryotherapy was 95.33%±5.87 and 76.67%±25.14, respectively, and this difference was significant (P<0.01). Furthermore, 57% (26 out of 45) of the lesions in the intervention group were completely resolved after 4 sessions, and the rest showed a moderate response to this treatment. Moreover, the minimum response rate was 80% in the intervention group and 30% in the control group.
Conclusion: In recalcitrant skin warts, intralesional injection of vitamin D3 combined with cryotherapy significantly increased the treatment response and reduced the financial burden imposed on patients. The limitation of this trial was the small sample size of patients without a follow-up plan after completing the treatment sessions.
Trial registration: The Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials registered this study (identifier: IRCT20200513047434N1).