Duct tape outperformed cryotherapy (freezing) for treating warts in a randomized, controlled, controlled trial.
when I was reviewing “The science behind common over-the-counter remedies used in dermatology,” like tea tree oil for acne or nail fungus, I was surprised to see a section on duct tape on the same page. Scotch tape? The only time I can remember seeing duct tape. used in a medical study it was to identify the gases responsible for the odor of human farts. That study involved a «harvesting system» comprised of «airtight pants» taped to the skin to assess the wind-protection capabilities of a cushion called beep trapper.
In this case, the dermatology journal was talking about warts. As I discuss in my video Duct tape and wart removal«Scotch tape brings we bring out our inventive and slightly eccentric side…Given this versatility, it wasn’t all that surprising a few years ago when a group of doctors…reported that duct tape could remove warts.» As I noted in my previous video on warts, Benefits of tea tree oil for warts and cold sores, all sorts of weird things are supposed to cure warts, because most warts go away on their own. researchers Following thousand children for two years, and two-thirds of their warts missing without doing anything. So, maybe we should leave them alone, “although… there are cases that can order treatment…” Otherwise, we can let our own body take care of them.
warts are caused by wart viruses, so the spontaneous disappearance of warts is thought to be an immune response where our body finally wakes up and takes notice. This assumption is based on studies in which foreign proteins were injected into the wart itself. In one such study, researchers injected a measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine directly into the wart that, compared to placebo, appeared to speed up the immune clearance process. The problem is that the injections hurt, of course, and 30 percent of children who received the wart vaccine suffered a flu-like syndrome. Oh. Okay, cross that out. What else can we do?
Within a few months, any placebo treatment work in about a quarter of the cases, so it wouldn’t mean much if you put duct tape on 100 warts and 23 went away. The traditional medical therapies of acid treatments and freezing treatments increase the cure rate to about 50 percent, so if you really wanted to test the efficacy of duct tape, you’d compare it head-to-head with one of those two treatments. . , which is exactly what the researchers did In «Efficacy of duct tape versus cryotherapy in the treatment of verruca vulgaris (the common wart).» (Cryotherapy is one of the current treatments of choice for many pediatricians.)
“Objective: Determine if application «The use of duct tape is as effective as cryotherapy in the treatment of common warts.» Patients were randomly assigned to receive liquid nitrogen applied to each wart or «duct tape occlusion (applied directly to the wart).» When I heard about treating warts with duct tape, I had a picture of duct tape being used to try to rip off the warts, but that was not the case. A small circle of adhesive tape was applied to the wart approximately every week.
Although there have been some anecdotal reports of the use of adhesive tape, no prospective randomized controlled trial had been conducted until this study. The researchers found that the duct tape «not only equals the efficacy of cryotherapy in the treatment of common wart, but exceeds it.» Cryotherapy worked in 60 percent of cases, but 85 percent of the taped patients were cured. The researchers concluded: «Adhesive tape occlusion therapy was significantly more effective than cryotherapy for the treatment of common wart.» More effective and with fewer side effects. «The only adverse effect observed in the duct tape group during our study was a minimal amount of local irritation and erythema,» or redness, while cryotherapy hurts.
Do you want to hear the saddest? In fact, one small child vomited from fear of pain before each cryotherapy session. It was as if they were torturing the poor child. Cryotherapy can not only cause pain, but also bloody blisters that can become infected and can also damage the nail bed.
So, scotch tape – more effective, with fewer side effects and more convenient. Compare applying some duct tape at home to making several visits to the clinic every two weeks or so. With duct tape, it’s win-win-win.
Duct tape «can now be offered as a non-threatening, painless and inexpensive technique for the treatment of warts in children.» How much does a piece of masking tape cost? We all win, we all win! Of course, the money you save is the money the doctor loses, and there’s no way the medical profession is going to let this go unchallenged. More studies were done and failed to show an effect. So, we end up with conclusions like this in the medical literature: “Is duct tape effective in treating warts?…No.” That? Is duct tape really ineffective after all, or Was there some kind of critical design flaw in the follow-up studies? You can find out in my follow-up video. Can warts really be removed with duct tape?.
This video is the first in a three part series on wart removal tape. the others are Can warts really be removed with duct tape? and What kind of duct tape is best for removing warts?.
