COMPARISON OF EFFICACY OF 10% POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE SOLUTION VERSUS CRYOTHERAPY IN TREATMENT OF MOLLUSCUM CONTAGIOSUM
Abstract
Background: Different topical therapies are being used for treating molluscum contagiosum. Potassium hydroxide in varying solution strengths with irritant reaction on the skin can help in eliminating the infection. It is cheap, easily available, can be easily applied at home, with good safety profile and cost effectiveness. This study was conducted to compare the efficacy of 10% potassium hydroxide solution versus cryotherapy in treating molluscum contagiosum. Methodology: This study was a Randomized control trial conducted in the Department of dermatology, Military hospital Rawalpindi. Study included 120 randomly selected patients with molluscum contagiosum divided equally into two groups. Group A were treated with 10% potassium hydroxide aqueous solution applied daily to the lesions twice daily for 6 weeks while Group B received weekly cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen. The status of lesions was documented weekly for 6 weeks. Results: Of the 120 patients enrolled, 67 (55.8%) were male and 53 (44.2%) were female. Mean age of patients was 20.53(±8.17) years. At base line Molluscum contagiosum lesion ranged from minimum of 2 lesions to maximum of 26 lesions with a mean of 8.95 (SD ±4.45) lesions. Of 120 patients, complete clearance was observed in 98(81.6%) of patients, 48(80%) patients had lesion clearance in Group A and 50 (83.3%) patients had lesion clearance was observed in Group B. No statistical significance was observed in the lesion clearance between the two groups (p-0.63). Conclusion: The efficacy of 10% potassium hydroxide solution and cryotherapy is statistically same over 6 weeks of treatment. Thus less expensive, easily available and cosmetically more acceptable potassium hydroxide solution can be used instead of cryotherapy in treating molluscum contagiosum.Keywords: Molluscum contagiosum, cryotherapy, potassium hydroxide, efficacyReferences
Liota E, Smith KJ, Buckley R, Menon P, Skelton H. Imiquimod therapy for molluscum contagiosum. J Cutan Med Surg 2000;4(2):76–82.
Murphy PM. Viral exploitation and subversion of the immune system through chemokine mimicry. Nat Immunol 2001;2(2):116–22.
Damon I, Murphy PM, Moss B. Broad spectrum chemokine antagonistic activity of a human poxvirus chemokine homolog. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1998;95(11):6403–7.
Shisler JL, Moss B. Molluscum contagiosum virus inhibitors of apoptosis: the MC159 v-FLIP protein blocks Fas-induced activation of procaspases and degradation of the related MC160 protein. Virology 2001;282(1):14–25.
Al Mutairi N, Al Doukhi A, Al Farag S, Al Haddad A. Comparative study on the efficacy, safety, and acceptability of imiquimod 5% cream versus cryotherapy for molluscum contagiosum in children. Pediatr Dermatol 2010;27(4):388–94.
Brown J, Janniger CK, Schwartz RA, Silverberg NB. Childhood molluscum contagiosum. Int J Dermatol 2006;45(2):93–9.
Dohil MA, Lin P, Lee J, Lucky AW, Paller AS, Eichenfield LF. The epidemiology of molluscum contagiosum in children. J Am Acad Dermatol 2006;54(1):47–54.
Muzaffar F. 10% Potassium hydroxide solution vs. cryotherapy in the treatment of molluscum contagiosum: A case-control study. J Pak Assoc Dermatol 2011;21(3).
Skinner RB Jr. Treatment of molluscum contagiosum with imiquimod 5% cream. J Am Acad Dermatol 2002;47(4 Suppl):221–4.
Marsal JR, Cruz I, Teixido C, Diez O, Martinez M, Galindo G, et al. Efficacy and tolerance of the topical application of potassium hydroxide (10% and 15%) in the treatment of molluscum contagiosum: Randomized clinical trial: Research protocol. BMC Infect Dis 2011;11(1):278.
Köse O, Özmen İ, Arca E. An open, comparative study of 10% potassium hydroxide solution versus salicylic and lactic acid combination in the treatment of molluscum contagiosum in children. J Dermatol Treat 2012;24(4):300–4.
Sladden MJ, Johnston GA. Common skin infections in children. BMJ 2004;329(7457):95–9.
Rajouria EA, Amatya A, Karn D. Comparative study of 5% potassium hydroxide solution versus 0.05% tretinoin cream for molluscum contagiosum in children. Kathmandu Univ Med J 2012;9(4):291–4.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.
