Efficacy of surgical and/or podophyllotoxin treatment against flat acetowhite penile human papillomavirus associated lesions.

In order to investigate the efficacy of treatment modalities favoured by us against flat acetowhite penile human papillomavirus (HPV)-induced lesions, we studied retrospectively standardized medical records of 81 men who had been treated for this condition. The patients were treated surgically with diathermy (n=32) or with a combination of both chemical (topical application of podophyllotoxin) and surgical treatment (n=49). The mean number of clinic visits was 9.1 (range 1-19), during a follow-up time of mean 30.9 (range 1-104) months for 78 of the men, 3 of them only visited the clinic once. The mean time for cure was 19.9 (range 0-103) months. Only 12 (15%) patients were healed after one single treatment session, while as many as 50 (62%) required > 4 sessions. The mean number of surgical treatment sessions required for cure differed significantly (P=0.0006) between the previously treated patients who needed a mean of 5.6 treatment sessions, compared to the previously untreated men who required surgery a mean of 3.4 times for cure.