The duct tape against warts?

The duct tape against warts?
The duct tape against warts?

The facts

The idea of ​​simply covering a wart with duct tape isn’t new. In 1978, the journal of dermatology Skin published the “case report” of a doctor who assured that “it works”, even if he said he did not know how. In fact, this treatment would be so effective, he enthused, that if a patient had several warts, simply covering one would cause all the others to disappear within a few weeks—much better than two or more warts. It can take three years for a wart to disappear on its own.

The problem is that his observations were not really confirmed afterwards. The rare works which have looked into the question have indeed delivered very, very equivocal conclusions on the whole. Here they are:

  • In 2002, an American study compared the effectiveness of the tape with that of cryotherapy, which consists of destroying the wart with liquid nitrogen at around -200°C (which hurts a lot, please believe me ). The tape then proved to be more effective, solving the problem in 85% of cases compared to only 60% for cryotherapy. However, this was a small study (61 patients).
  • Another scholarly article published in 2020 in Dermatologic Therapy however, came to the opposite conclusion: cryotherapy would be more effective (58% cure) than adhesive tape (20%).
  • Between the two, a randomized clinical trial (the most robust form of medical study) published in JAMA – Dermatology found no difference between a group whose warts had been “treated” simply by covering them with cloth and another who had cloth lined with clear gummed tape. In both cases, the cure rate after two months was low, at 21-22%.
  • In 2006, another clinical trial, conducted on children, found only “modest, and not statistically significant” effectiveness of duct tape compared to a placebo.
  • Finally, let us mention a last study which did not focus on the duct tape himself, but who compared the effect on plantar warts of imiquimod cream (a medication used against genital warts) and petroleum jelly. Both treatments were covered with duct tape. In the group that had only the tape and jelly, there was no complete cure after 16 weeks, only 20% “partial response” and no effect in 80% of cases.

In short, while some results are positive, overall there is no strong evidence of effectiveness in the medical literature.

Likewise, we do not really know by what mechanisms the duct tape would have an anti-wart effect, if it has one. Some suggest that a component of the glue is involved – which could explain the negative results of certain studies, which did not use the right type of tape – but we do not know which one. Others suggest that the effect of the tape is simply to prevent the virus that causes warts (human papilloma) from infecting other parts of the body.

Regardless, the fact remains that several health authorities and reliable health sources describe duct tape as a treatment “option”. But I don’t think this should be interpreted as “proof” of effectiveness or a formal “recommendation.”

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Rather, it should be understood in the same sense as a pediatrician from British Columbia explained it in 2019 in an article in Canadian family doctor. There are not many treatments, in fact, that have really been shown to be effective against warts. And as these tend to resolve on their own without after-effects (even if it takes a long time), it is “acceptable” not to recommend any intervention, the paper indicated.

But if a patient insists on “doing something,” then duct tape may be one of the options. It may not be proven to work, but it costs next to nothing and is risk-free. So there’s no real reason not to try it, just in case it works.

Verdict

Missing evidence. There are anecdotal cases where the duct tape quickly resolved wart problems, but the studies on this contradict each other. This still remains an option that some medical sources offer since it is inexpensive and without risk.

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