Warts are not merely blemishes on the skin: A study on the morbidity associated with having viral cutaneous warts
✍ Scribed by Antoinette Ciconte; Jan Campbell; Sepehr Tabrizi; Suzanne Garland; Robin Marks
- Book ID
- 104469180
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2003
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 48 KB
- Volume
- 44
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0004-8380
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
SUMMARY
Eighty‐five people aged 2–76 years with 250 common and plantar warts were followed prospectively for 9 months. The majority (57; 67%) had one to two warts. Of the 54 subjects who had a past history of warts, 41 (75.9%) had sought treatment for them. Twenty‐four (58.5%) said that treatment had been unsuccessful; 22 (53.7%) experienced pain during their treatment; 14 (34.1%) said that treatment had been inconvenient; nine (22%) required multiple treatments; and eight (19.5%) said the treatment resulted in the development of scars. The quality‐of‐life assessment related to their current warts revealed that 81.2% were moderately to extremely embarrassed by them; 70.5% were moderately to extremely concerned about negative appraisal by others for having them; 24.7% said that it was moderately to extremely difficult to play sport because of their warts. Moderate to severe discomfort from their warts occurred in 51.7% of people and 35.4% said they had moderate to severe pain. During the 9‐month study period, 27 (31.8%) of the participants had at least one wart regress spontaneously with 49 (19.6%) of the 254 warts regressing during that time. These data confirm the impression that a wart is not merely a blemish on the skin. Warts have the potential to cause considerable morbidity at times; this should be taken into account when a patient asks for treatment.