Treatment of Verruca Plana with High Dose Cimetidine Therapy

Park, Chang Ook; Chung, Kee Yang; Chung, Woo Gil

Abstract

BACKGROUND
It is often a difficult problem for dermatologists to treat verruca plana. Cimetidine is a H2 histamine receptor antagonist that has been used mainly to treat peptic ulcer disease. The successful use of cimetidine in the treatment of viral warts has been reported previously using doses of 40mg/kg/day and has the advantage of being painless and easy to administer. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical effects of high dose cimetidine therapy for verruca plana. METHODS: Thirty-six patients with verruca plana were treated with high dose cimetidine therapy (22 females, 14 males; age range 7-56 years). RESULTS: Of the 36 patients who completed the study, 15 patients (41.7%) showed complete remission. 8 patients (22.2%) showed partial remission. There was no significant differences among the complete remission, the partial remission and the no response groups. There were a few adverse effects including transient liver enzyme elevation and gynecomastia which were normalized after the cimetidine was discontinued. CONCLUSION: High dose cimetidine therapy is an effective treatment modality for verruca plana without severe adverse effects.