Efficacy of Laser Versus Cryotherapy in the Treatment of Warts

Cutaneous warts were a common skin diseases caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. Although warts may spontaneously resolve, many patients seek for treatment for various reasons. There are many kinds of treatments for cutaneous warts, including salicylic acid, cryotherapy, laser, etc. A recent high quality RCT confirmed that the cure rate of topical salicylic acid and frozen has no difference at six months, but the efficacy of laser versus cryotherapy on the treatment of warts remains unclear. Therefore, we designed a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of laser versus cryotherapy on the treatment of warts.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients have cutaneous warts, including common warts(d≥1cm or n≥5 ), plantar warts, periungual warts, mosaic warts, which are suitable for cryotherapy and laser treatment .
• patients aged eighting years and over, who have junior school degree or above

Exclusion criteria

• Patients who have more than 20 warts
• Patients who are currently participating in another trial for the treatment of their warts
• Patients who took immunosuppressant drugs such as oral corticosteroids within the past three months.
• Patients who are pregnant or ready for pregnancies or breast-feeding.
• Patients who have impaired healing eg due to diabetes, vascular disease, vitamin A deficiency, hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism.
• Patients who have autoimmune diseases, eg SLE, dermatomyositis, scleroderma and other diseases .
• Patients who have cold intolerance, eg cold urticaria, cryoglobulinaemia, cold agglutinin syndrome, Raynaud's syndrome.
• Patients who have local injections intolerance.
• Patients who have local hypoesthesia .
• Patients who can not tolerate cryotherapy or laser treatment for their own reasons.