Background and objective: The objective of this study was to establish the 585 nm flashlamp-pulsed tunable dye laser (PTDL) as a potentially effective modality in the treatment of plantar verrucae. Furthermore, this study attempted to identify if certain regions of the plantar surface yielded a different clearance rate in comparison to others.
Study design/materials and methods: Thirty-three patients were recruited for this case series study, representing a total of 97 plantar warts. Patients were treated using the flashlamp-PTDL with a pulse duration of 450 microseconds, a spot diameter of 5.0 mm, and energy fluences ranging between 8.1 and 8.4 J/cm2. Patients were followed-up an average of 2-24 weeks assessing for recurrence of verrucae.
Results: Each patient exhibited one to eight plantar lesions. Of the 97 verrucae treated by the flashlamp-PTDL, 68 (70.1%) resolved with 100% clearance of the lesion. The overall mean clearance of the 97 lesions was 95.1 +/- 16.5%. Of the 97 lesions treated to maximal clearance, 14 lesions recurred after a mean follow-up period of 9.0 weeks.
Conclusion: Results of this study have established the 585 nm flashlamp-pulsed tunable dye laser as a potentially effective modality treatment of plantar warts. Furthermore, it was determined that there was no significant difference in the clearance rate of warts located at a given plantar site when compared to the clearance rates of the other plantar sites (F3/44 = 0.58, P = 0.634).