Evaluation of Factors That May Affect Success of Cryotherapy in the Treatment of Warts: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

ABS Objective: Success of the treatment of warts with cryotherapy differs from patient to patient. We aimed to evaluate how the age and gender of the patient, the type, number, duration, localization of warts and cryotherapy session intervals affect the success of treatment. Material and Methods: After ethics committee approval had been re- ceived, the medical files of patients with diagnosis of wart, between June 2016 and June 2019, were analysed retrospectively. Demographic and clinical features of patients were recorded. Patients who did not improve clinically after 6 sessions were considered resistant to treatment. Demo- graphic and clinical features were compared between treatment resistant and non-resitant groups by using SPSS 17 (Chicago, IL, USA), two- sided p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Fifty-six of 98 patients (57.2%) were female and 42 of them (42.8%) were male. The mean age was 21.98±12.80 years. Among all patients, 28 (28.6%) of them were resistant to the therapy. In the resistant group, F/M ratio was 20/8 (71.4%/28.6%) and in the non-resistant group, 36/34 (51.4%/48.6%). The difference between groups was statistically signif- icant (p=0.04). Patients with wart sizes of 0-4.9 mm, 5-10 mm, >10 mm were compared and resistance rates were found respectively 14.7%, 31.5%, 60%. Difference between subgroups was statistically significant (p=0.01). The mean age, lesion localization, lesion number, verruca sub- type, duration of the disease and the session intervals for both groups were found similar (p>0.05). Conclusion: Treatment success was found to be lower in women and in patients with larger warts.