Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Plane warts represents a common dermatological problem and self-limiting viral infection of the
skin caused by human papilloma viruses type (3,10,28,29) with no uniformly effective treatment
modality.
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate and compare the effectiveness and side effect of topical trichloroacetic acid solution in
two concentration (35% & 70%) for treatment of plane warts.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
This is a comparative interventional therapeutic study conducted at the dermatology center of
Baghdad Teaching Hospital / Medical City . Sixty consecutive patients with plane warts were
randomly assigned into two groups of thirty patients each; group A received topical trichloroacetic
acid 35% (9 patients defaulted for unknown reasons) and group B received topical trichloroacetic
acid 70% (8 patients defaulted for unknown reasons) once weekly application by doctor at hospital
with wood stick once weekly until complete responce of the lesions or for at least four weeks.
Patients with complete response follow up monthly for 3 months for detecting recurrence.
RESULTS:
In group (A) 9 (42.85 %) patients from showed complete response, with 9 (42.85 %) patients
showed partial response; the remaining 3 (14.28%) patients showed no response (p value ˂ 0.05)
with complete response (7 from 9) need 4-8 weeks of treatment, while in group (B) 13 (59.09 %)
patients showed complete response, with 8 (36.36 %) patients showed partial response; the
remaining one (4.54 %) patients showed no response, (p value < 0.05) with complete response (8
from 13) need two to four weeks of treatment i.e TCA 70% faster response. Most of patient suffer
from burning sensation & itching as a side effects and few patients with erythema &
dyspigmentaion. There are 2 (9.52%) recurrent cases from group 35% with 1 (4.54%) recurrent case
in group 70% .
CONCLUSION:
both concentrations