PULSED DYE LASER TREATMENT FOR RECALCITRANT VIRAL WARTS: AUTO-SIMULTANEOUS LASER TREATMENT

Abstract

Verruca vulgaris is a benign proliferative lesion of the skin caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). It is commonly seen in dermatologic and/or plastic surgery clinics. The diagnosis is straightforward, but the treatment of the lesion may be difficult and lengthy. Several treatment methods have been reported but no specific therapy of choice has been developed. It has been suggested that pulsed dye laser treatment is highly effective in the treatment of viral warts which have not responded to other treatments. Pulsed dye laser treatment is a safe method with low side effects and is mostly well-tolerated by patients. Several authors have recently reported the efficiency of pulsed dye laser treatment for warts, but no report has paid attention to the influence of low levels of laser irradiation about the periphery of the treated lesion which may induce immune activation and pain alleviation. We believe these effects are mainly due to the athermal and atraumatic simultaneous Low reactive Level Laser Therapy effect on photobiomodulated cells at the periphery of the treated lesion. We call this coincident duality of thermal damage and athermal stimulation ‘auto-simultaneous laser treatment’. We report herein on pulse dye laser treatment for a recalcitrant huge viral wart and consider the vital response.