A Randomized double Blind Controlled Study Comparing the Efficacy of Intralesional MMR Vaccine with Normal Saline in the Treatment of Cutaneous Warts

BACKGROUND: Recently, with better understanding of the immunology of warts, immunotherapeutic approaches have emerged as an effective treatment option for the management of cutaneous warts. Intralesional immunotherapy with MMR vaccine is one such modality but there are still lack of enough placebo-controlled studies. AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of intralesional MMR in patients of extragenital warts in a double-blinded manner using normal saline as control. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred patients of extragenital cutaneous warts were randomly allocated into two groups, the interventional (MMR) group and control (normal saline) group. MMR vaccine was injected intralesionally in the patients belonging to interventional group, a similar volume of normal saline (NS) was injected in the control group. The outcome in terms of treatment response, adverse effects, and recurrences were evaluated and compared. RESULTS: Eighteen of thirty (60%) patients in the interventional group achieved complete response as against 7 (23.3%) in the control group (P = 0.01). Distant warts cleared in 69.5% patients in the interventional groupcompared to none in the control group. Adverse effects seen in both groups were injection site pain and mild erythema. A total of 57.1% patients showed recurrences in the control group compared to 16.6% in the interventional group. CONCLUSION: Intralesional MMR vaccine is an effective treatment option in patients with multiple extragenital warts. It is suggested that it should be used as first-line therapy for multiple warts and a second-line therapy for warts recalcitrant to standard therapies.