A comparison of therapeutic efficacy of a melamine foam sponge and conventional cotton wool bud in the cryotherapy of viral warts: a paired comparison study.

Many therapies have been studied for the treatment of viral warts, but none are uniformly effective. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of conventional cotton wool bud with that of melamine foam sponge as applicators in the treatment of warts with liquid nitrogen. A paired comparison study was conducted in 27 patients with at least two similar clinical types of warts. Similar clinical lesions were allocated to have liquid nitrogen applied with cotton wool bud or melamine foam sponge. Mean size reduction rate after the first treatment was 30.5% in the cotton wool bud group and 59.1% in the melamine foam sponge group. Mean number of total treatments was 3.05 in the cotton wool bud group and 2.29 in the melamine foam sponge group. Melamine foam sponge was found to be more effective in comparison to conventional cryotherapy with cotton wool bud.