Viral warts on the skin in children aged 4 to 12 are transmitted on their own in about 50% of cases - such results from a study by Dutch scientists were published in the September issue of Annals of Family Medicine. Spontaneous resolution is particularly likely in young children and patients whose skin is not white.

Patients and family physicians must weigh the benign natural course of the disease, the adverse effects of treatment and the cost of treatment, on the one hand, and the effectiveness of treatment and the risks of spreading warts in the no treatment, on the other hand.

Researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center - LUMC in the Netherlands analyzed the natural course of warts in 1,099 children with a 15-month follow-up period.

Viral skin warts caused by the human papillomavirus were present at the initial visit in 366 (33%) children. Warts have been discovered by specially trained medical students who have examined each child's hands and feet. The parents of the patients completed questionnaires concerning the treatment used.

It turned out that in about half of the cases, the children revealed warts that their parents had not noticed.

At the end of 1 year, the frequency of complete resolution of warts was 52 per 100 patient-years, regardless of the presence or absence of treatment. The probability of self-resolution increased by about 10% each year with a decrease in the age of the child and was twice as high in children with non-white skin types.

About one-third (38%) of children with warts have received over-the-counter medications or treatment prescribed by family doctors. First (3 times more often), treatment was given to children with large lesions (more than 1 cm in diameter) or warts causing anxiety (38 times more often than other patients). These lesions were less likely to disappear spontaneously at the end of the follow-up period, regardless of the treatment used, which included only over-the-counter drugs in 18% of the cases, a treatment prescribed by a doctor in 15% of the cases. and both treatment options in 5%.

This study showed that family doctors only prescribe treatment for children with skin warts in 20% of cases. This category of patients, as a rule, has extensive lesions, or warts cause serious inconvenience, and are characterized by a worse prognosis and a lower recovery frequency than children who do not consult the doctor.

Thus, the best tactic in children with viral warts on the skin is precisely the wait-and-see tactic.