[Preliminary report of podophyllotoxin in the treatment of genital warts in China].

Sixty-five patients with various types of genital warts were treated with 0.5% podophyllotoxin ethanol solution provided by Conpharm AB Sweden including 49 male and 16 female patients. The patients were treated topically bid, for 3 days as one treatment. If the desired effect was not achieved following one treatment, it was repeated in weekly intervals for no more than 3 treatments. Cumulative cure rates of 73.85%, 80% and 81.54% were obtained with podophyllotoxin treatment after the 1st, 2nd and 3rd treatments respectively. The genital warts cured by podophyllotoxin relapsed after one month at a rate of 14.9%. None of the patients treated with podophyllotoxin showed any systemic side effects, but mild local superficial erosions and slight pain appeared in most of the patients on the 3rd day of therapy. It is our opinion that external use of 0.5% podophyllotoxin for treating genital warts should be the method of choice for its high cure rate, time saving, safety and convenience.