LAUSR

Dear Editor, Cutaneous warts caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) is a very common skin disease worldwide. However, the current treatment options cannot meet the clinical demands in cutaneous warts of children. Painful treatments are usually not tolerated and should be avoided in young children. The common therapies such as cryotherapy and topical treatments showed disappointed clinical effects in multiple warts of children. Here, we report case series of numerous warts in children successfully treated by local hyperthermia. The characteristics of the patients are given in Table S1. There were totally 15 children received local hyperthermia treatments for their numerous warts. Of the 40% patients were male and 80% were 12 years old or below, the other 20% were 13 or 14 years old. The affected locations were mainly hands (60%) and feet (40%). A total of 53.3% warts were present for longer than 1 year. Two thirds of the patients received seven times of treatments. Only two patients received more than 21 treatment times. After the local hyperthermia therapy, 100% and 93.3% of the patients were improved or resolved. Just one patient relapsed with one wart. Of the 60% patients received local hyperthermia treatment alone, and the other 40% combined cryotherapy (n = 3), soaking in herbs (n = 2), or in saline (n = 1) (Table S1). Representative treatment responses are shown in Figure 1A–F. The most common reaction was local pain (n = 3, 20%), while 80% of the children reported no discomfort. Local hyperthermia has been previously used as a combination therapy for the treatment of tumors. Recently, many reports demonstrated the efficacy of local hyperthermia in treatment of warts for its non-ablative and well-tolerance. The devices not in use and in working are shown in Figure S1A, B. This device has an infrared emitting source, which generates heat acting locally on the skin surface without direct contact. The surface temperature was controlled and stabilized at the preset temperature (±0.1 C) by an infrared temperature monitor and a feedback circuit.