Warts and all: Duct tape fails

November 8 2006

Sticky duct tape, the wondrous all-purpose fixer used in everything from auto and spacecraft repair to fashion, may have finally met its match: warts.

Though long considered by many dermatologists to be a safe, painless way to eliminate nasty plantar warts, duct tape proved to be no better than a placebo in school children, according to a study published in the November issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

In addition, 15 percent of the duct-taped children reported adverse effects, mainly redness of the skin, eczema and wounds, compared with none in the placebo group.

Duct tape became a popular alternative wart treatment in 2002 after a study found it was "significantly more effective than cryotherapy (freezing skin lesions with liquid nitrogen or ether) for treating the common wart." But that study was later criticized because the researchers phoned the study participants to ask if the warts were gone, rather than examining them.

Since then, despite the fact Jim and Tim, the Duct Tape Guys, have been able to fill seven books with the real and wacky uses of duct tape, science hasn’t been able to confirm its efficacy against warts.

Still, if skin abrasions are the only risk, it doesn’t hurt to try, especially because scientists haven’t been able to figure out what else really works.

Treatments containing salicylic acid have been shown to have a therapeutic effect but they’re awkward and uncomfortable. And evidence on cryotherapy or liquid nitrogen, which can burn when applied, was "surprisingly lacking," according to a Cochrane Review study.

"The benefits and risks of other topical applications including dinitrochlorobenzene and 5-fluorouracil and intralesional bleomycin and interferons and photodynamic therapy remain to be determined," the researchers found.

If you want to try it, cover the wart for six to seven days with duct tape (replacing the tape if it falls off sooner.) When the week is up, buff the wart with an emery board. (The children in the study had their warts rubbed with a pumice stone, but this is not recommended. It hurts and the bleeding can spread the wart virus.)

Then replace the duct tape for another week until the wart is gone or two months have passed.

I probably don’t need to mention this, but just in case: Don’t try this on your face or on perianal or genital warts. Duct tape, used to repair military equipment, is also called "100 m.p.h tape," because of the urban legend that it will stay stuck when subjected to winds traveling up to 100 m.p.h. Ouch.