Efficacy of Autoinoculation in Treatment of Multiple Viral Warts - A Single Arm Study.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of autoinoculation of a wart in patients with multiple viral warts. STUDY DESIGN: An experimental study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Dermatology, Pak Emirates Military Hospital (PEMH), Rawalpindi, from February 2021 to February 2022. METHODOLOGY: Patients above 12 years of age, having more than 5 warts were included. Those getting any other treatment for warts were excluded. The procedure was performed on a total of 70 patients with warts on 3 sites i.e. face/neck, palmoplantar and multiple sites. The outcome was categorised into cleared (no wart), partially cleared (reduced number of warts than baseline), and no response (same or increased number of warts than baseline). RESULTS: Out of 70 patients, 54 (77.1%) patients showed complete response, 6 (8.6%) showed partial response and 10 (14.3%) showed no response at all. Out of 54 patients who showed complete response, 36 (66.6%) were cleared after only one inoculation, fifteen (27.7%) were cleared after two inoculations, and 3 (5.5%) were cleared after three inoculations. The results were statistically significant with p-value <0.05. CONCLUSION: Autoinoculation is a simple and minimally invasive procedure which proved to be very effective against all types of warts, with very promising results against palmoplantar warts. KEY WORDS Viral warts, Multiple viral warts, Autoinoculation, Delayed hypersensitivity, Human papilloma virus (HPV), Palmoplantar warts, Immunity.