Immunotherapy for recalcitrant warts in children using intralesional mumps or Candida antigens

Intralesional injection of mumps and Candida skin test antigens has been shown to be effective in the treatment of warts. Warts are generally difficult to treat in children. To determine the efficacy of intralesional skin test antigen injection for the treatment of resistant warts in children, we treated 47 pediatric patients with one or more warts with intralesional injection of mumps or Candida skin test antigen into one wart. Twenty-two patients (47%) with resistant warts experienced complete resolution of treated warts. An average of 3.78 treatments were necessary. An additional 34% of children had a greater than 25% improvement in their warts. Sixty-eight percent of subjects with more than one wart also noted at least partial resolution (greater than 25% resolution) of untreated warts at distant sites, with 34% experiencing complete resolution. We concluded that intralesional injection of skin test antigens is an effective therapy for children who have recalcitrant, nongenital, cutaneous warts.