The Clinical Effectiveness of Intralesional Injection of 2% Zinc Sulfate Solution in the Treatment of Common Warts

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of intralesional injection of 2% zinc sulfate solution in the treatment of common warts. Patients and Methods. One hundred and twenty patients (78 females and 42 males) aged 5–55 years with 225 common warts participated in this prospective monocentric randomized study. All lesions were treated with intralesional injection of 2% zinc sulfate. Results. From 225 warts injected, 135 warts (60%) cured from the first session, 51 warts (22.67%) cured from the second session, and 12 warts (5.33%) cured from the third session. There is no significant relation between improvement and patient's ages, duration, or number of warts (P > 0.05). All patients complained from pain during injection, and all treated lesions showed redness, tenderness, and swelling in the first 3 days after injection. Late complications were postinflammatory hyperpigmentation in 90 patients (75%), scaring in 9 patients (7.5%), and ulceration in 3 patients (2.5%). Recurrence occurred in 3 lesions (1.33%). Conclusion. The clinical data indicate that intralesional injection of 2% zinc sulfate is an effective maneuver in the treatment of common warts; however, its associated complications limit its use.

Intralesional zinc sulfate 2% vs intralesional vitamin D in plantar warts: A clinicodermoscopic study

“…Our study showed absence of a significant correlation between age, sex, and the response to treatment in both group I and II, and this is consistent with Mohamed et al and Raghukumar et al In contrast, El‐Taweel et al and Sabry et al reported better response of younger patients for warts treatment as younger patients are more capable of mounting effective immune responses.…”

“…On the other hand, Sharquie and Al‐Nuaimy and Mohamed et al showed different response rates. Sharquie and Al‐Nuaimy reported a total cure rate in 98.2% of cases, and most of them needed just a single injection.…”

“…This difference might be because of the different study design, as in their study they injected verruca vulgaris not plantar warts. Mohamed et al reported 88% complete response. This higher improvement rates may be attributed to the inclusion of more patients (120) and the higher dose of the used zinc sulfate 2% per patient as they are used to inject more than wart in the same patient, whereas in our work, we injected only one wart for every patient.…”

“…It has been used successfully in the treatment of plane warts topically and common warts and genital warts orally . A few studies have utilized intralesional injection of 2% zinc sulfate solution for the treatment of common warts …”

Intralesional 2% zinc sulfate solution for plane warts: A case report

“…To our knowledge, one trial has been conducted involving the usage of topical 10% zinc sulfate solution for the treatment of plane warts in 10 patients with 80% response rate (Sharquie, Khorsheed, & Al‐Nuaimy, ). Mohamed, Tawfik, and Mahmoud () concluded that common warts can be cured using intralesional injection of 2% zinc sulfate. In our patient, we injected 2% zinc sulfate solution intralesionally at a single lesion only with complete clearance after one session.…”