Is cryotherapy effective in treating common warts?

There are several ways to treat common warts, and the cryotherapy we are going to talk about today is also relatively common. Cryotherapy mainly uses temperature to cause necrosis of infected tissues, thereby achieving the therapeutic effect. This treatment method is relatively common in the treatment of skin diseases.

Cryotherapy is a method of applying low temperature to diseased tissue to cause necrosis or induce biological effects in order to achieve the purpose of treatment. Because of its simplicity and ease, it is widely used in dermatology.

Refrigerant: Liquid nitrogen is currently the main refrigerant used in dermatology clinics. It has a low refrigeration temperature and a boiling point of -196°C, which can cause great damage to tissues.

Our department generally uses the cotton swab method, which is the simplest method. According to the size of the skin lesions, prepare the corresponding cotton swabs and dip them in liquid nitrogen, then quickly place them on the skin lesions and apply a certain pressure.

Indications:

Various types of warts: The cure rate for common warts can reach over 95%. For periungual warts, cryotherapy can be used as the first choice because it will not affect the growth of the nail by damaging the nail matrix. Cryotherapy for periungual warts is quite painful, and most of the patients are children. I generally recommend local anesthesia so that the children can cooperate with the cryotherapy without pain, which can achieve better results. In addition, cryotherapy has a good effect on other warts such as genital warts (especially vulvar warts in pregnant women), flat warts (generally not used on the face), molluscum contagiosum (especially suitable for children's molluscum contagiosum. Laser treatment requires local anesthesia, which is generally difficult for children to cooperate with. Liquid nitrogen freezing does not require anesthesia and generally only requires one treatment to cure it), seborrheic keratosis (senile plaques), nodular prurigo, cutaneous amyloidosis, etc. In order to improve the efficacy, multiple treatments are generally required. I personally recommend waiting one month after the scab falls off before cryotherapy. Before treatment, the surface hypertrophic keratin should be shaved off as much as possible.