TUESDAY, March 20 (HealthDay News) -- Duct tape is no more effective than moleskin at eliminating the common wart, according to the results of a study published in the March issue of the Archives of Dermatology.
Rachel Wenner, M.D., of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues randomly assigned 90 adult volunteers with at least one wart measuring between 2 mm and 15 mm to treatment with either moleskin containing transparent duct tape or moleskin alone. They instructed patients to wear the pads for seven consecutive days, leave the pad off on the seventh evening, and repeat the process for two months.
The researchers found that there was no significant differences in wart resolution between the duct tape and control groups (21 percent versus 22 percent, respectively). Among patients with complete resolution, they also found that 75 percent of the duct tape group and 33 percent of the control group experienced a recurrence of the target wart after six months.
"To our knowledge, this is the first double-blind controlled trial investigating this therapy," the authors write. "The results of our study suggest that occlusion itself is not the therapeutic mechanism because the overall success rates were low in both treatment groups."
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
