Treatment of common warts with an intralesional mixture of 5-fluorouracil, lidocaine, and epinephrine: a prospective placebo-controlled, double-blind randomized trial

Abstract

Background: 5-Fluorouracil is an antimetabolite that has been known to be effective for the treatment of common warts.

Objective: The objective was to evaluate the efficacy of a combination of 5-fluorouracil, lidocaine, and epinephrine (5-FU+LE) for the treatment of common warts.

Materials and methods: Of the 40 patients initially enrolled, 34 patients with at least 68 verruca vulgaris (one pair for each subject) completed the study. The selected warts were randomized into two treatment groups, with one wart on each patient receiving intralesional 5-FU+LE (4 mL of 50 mg/mL 5-fluorouracil and 1 mL of a mixture of 20 mg/mL [2%] lidocaine and 0.0125 mg/mL epinephrine) and the other receiving intralesional normal saline placebo using a Mantoux needle. Patients received up to four injections at weekly intervals and were followed at 1 and 6 months after the initial injection.

Results: Complete response was observed in 64.7% of the warts treated with 5-FU+LE compared to 35.3% in the warts treated with placebo (p<.05). Systemic reaction or treatment-related adverse medical events and recurrence rate did not differ significantly between two groups.

Conclusion: The results show that intralesional 5-FU+LE is a safe and effective approach for common warts with high success rate.