Warts and duct tape

Just saw a patient with warts on her hands and remembered there was a small study that was released comparing duct tape and cryotherapy. I quickly Googled it and here’s the data:

In the study, researchers randomly assigned 51 patients, aged 3 and 22, to receive either a maximum of six cryotherapy treatments or two months of “duct tape therapy.”

Duct tape therapy consisted of a nurse covering the wart with a piece of duct tape roughly the same size as the wart. Patients kept the tape on for six straight days.

Researchers found that 85 percent of those in the duct tape group, compared to 60 percent of those in the cryotherapy group “had complete resolution of their warts.”

I ended up freezing them anyways, but then recommended duct tape to use at home. We’ll see how it turns out in a few weeks. The abstract is found here.

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