A Comparative Study of Liquid Nitrogen Cryotherapy as Monotherapy versus in Combination with Podophyllin in the Treatment of Condyloma Acuminata.

INTRODUCTION

Condyloma Acuminata (CA) is a common viral sexually transmitted disease. Although various treatment modalities are available for treating CA, but none of them can achieve 100% response rate. In a search for better response rate and less recurrence rate, the combination of cytotoxic agent Podophyllin with ablative liquid nitrogen cryotherapy was evaluated over cryotherapy alone.

AIM

To evaluate the synergistic effect of Podophyllin as a chemotherapeutic adjunct to an ablative therapy of liquid nitrogen cryotherapy versus liquid nitrogen cryotherapy alone in the treatment of CA.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sixty patients with multiple CA were randomly assigned to two groups in the study. Thirty patients in group A received double freeze thaw cycle of 25 seconds of liquid nitrogen cryotherapy. Thirty patients in Group B were subjected to liquid nitrogen cryotherapy in a similar manner followed by application of not more than 0.5 ml of 25% Podophyllin solution. All patients were followed up at 1, 4, 8, 12 and 24 weeks after the treatment to monitor the response to therapy and evaluation for any recurrence. When the number of unresponsive lesions were more than 30% of original lesions at 4 weeks follow-up, then the whole procedure was repeated again.

RESULTS

The complete response rate and the recurrence rate in the Group B in our study were comparable to Group A as the difference was statistically insignificant. But the differentiating point was that the similar results were obtained in Group B with an average1.2 sessions per patient in comparison to an average of 1.67 sessions per patient in Group A.

CONCLUSION

Cryotherapy represents a simple, safe and effective regimen for the treatment of multiple CA which in combination with Podophyllin is even more effective as a single session procedure; thereby shortening the treatment regimen.