Publication:

Intralesional immunotherapy with purified protein derivative antigen in the treatment of multiple cutaneous warts: an open label study in an urban teaching hospital

Background Viral warts caused by human papilloma virus are a group of oncogenic viruses that result in verrucous growths on the skin and mucosae. Intralesional immunotherapy has been tried in recent years with success with the use of a variety of antigens to non-specifically stimulate the cell mediated immune response. Similarly, we undertook a study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tuberculin purified protein derivative as an immunotherapeutic modality.

Methods A total of 25 patients were included in the study. Each patient was injected with 2.5 TU of tuberculin PPD (0.04 ml) intralesionally into most of the warts at 2 weekly intervals for a maximum of six sessions. It is an interventional study with follow-up upto 6 months. Descriptive analysis was done with use of SPSS version 23 tool. Complete resolution of warts was considered as the clinical end point. Response was graded as excellent response (>80% resolution), good response (50-80%), fair response (20-50%) and no response (<20%).

Results Out of the 25 patients, 14 patients showed excellent response (56%), 4 patients showed good response (16%), 5 patients showed fair response (20%) and 2 patients did not show any response (8%). Over 22 patients (88%) showed features of pain, erythema and inflammation at the injection site, whereas 3 patients (12%) developed itching at the site. The ‘faces’ pain rating scale was used to measure pain tolerance. An overall response rate (fair/good/ excellent) was given by 23 out of the 25 patients (92%), which proved satisfactory.

Conclusions Intralesional immunotherapy with PPD effectively cures warts which are present locally and also at distant sites. It is safe, economic and efficacious.