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Evidence summaries

Topical Interferon for Genital Warts

Topical interferon appears to be more effective than placebo for clearance of genital warts. Level of evidence: "B"

A topic in Clinical Evidence 1 summarizes the results of three RCTs (total n=223). All RCTs found that topical interferon increased complete wart clearance at 4 weeks compared with placebo (6% vs 3%, 73% vs 10%, and 90% vs 20%). One of the RCTs found that interferon was more effective than podophyllotoxin (90% vs 60%).

Comment: The quality of evidence was downgraded by sparse data (limited study size for each comparison).

    References

    • Buck H. What are the effects of treatments for external genital warts.? Genital warts. Clinical Evidence 2005;13:2005-2015.

Primary/Secondary Keywords