[Cimetidine therapy for multiple warts in children]

Various treatment modalities are used to treat warts and this indicates that none is uniformly effective. Cimetidine, an H2-receptor antagonist, has been tried to treat warts because of its immunomodulatory effects. Sixty children with multiple and recalcitrant warts were included in a placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Patients were randomly allocated to treatment groups equally. The groups received cimetidine, 25 to 30 mg/kg daily, or placebo for 2 months. At the end of the therapy, only 10 cimetidine-treated and 9 placebo-treated were examined. Cure rates obtained were 60% in the cimetidie-treated group and 33% in the placebo-treated group. Among our data and the review of the literature, we believe that cimetidine is not appropriate as standard therapy for warts, but it may be an interested therapy for multiple and recalcitrant warts of children.