Abstract

Fifty heterosexual male patients with histologically verified genital warts of short duration (less than 3 months) were randomly allocated to treatment with either 0.25% or 0.5% idoxuridine cream. The application of the cream to the warts was performed twice daily for an initial period of 14 days, whereafter patients with partial improvement or no response were retreated in the same way for another period of 14 days. Patients not completely healed after 28 days were regarded as treatment failures and withdrawn from the study. After the initial treatment period of 14 days, 19 of 25 patients (76%) treated with 0.5% idoxuridine cream, and 9 of 25 patients (36%) treated with 0.25% idoxuridine cream were completely healed. This difference is significant (p less than 0.01). The corresponding figures at the second follow-up examination (28 days after start of the study) were 19 of 25 (76%) and 13 of 25 (52%), respectively. At the last follow-up examination three months after start of treatment, four patients treated with 0.5% idoxuridine cream and five patients treated with 0.25% idoxuridine cream had a relapse. Thus, the overall rate of complete healing was 15 of 25 (60%) for the patients treated with 0.5% idoxuridine cream and 8 of 25 (32%) for those treated with 0.25% idoxuridine cream. The difference is significant (p less than 0.01). No adverse reactions were observed or reported by the patients.