Local Hyperthermia Can Clear Molluscum Contagiosum Lesions

More than half of 21 patients in pilot study had lesions cleared within 12 weeks

FRIDAY, July 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with molluscum contagiosum (MC) lesions, local hyperthermia with a targeted device is successful for lesion clearance, according to a research letter published online July 5 in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Y-Li Gao, from the No. 1 Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, and colleagues conducted a prospective trial involving 21 patients who were clinically diagnosed with MC. A hyperthermia device was targeted to the biggest lesion or the one in the region where it was convenient for the heating probe to the placed. After resolution of the first targeted lesion, the device was shifted to a new target. Treatment lasted 30 minutes, and lesions received local hyperthermia at a skin surface temperature of 44 degrees Celsius once a week. Treatment was stopped when there were no lesions left.

The researchers found that two, seven, and three patients had their lesions cleared within four weeks, four to eight weeks, and eight to 12 weeks, respectively. By 12 weeks, 57.14 percent of patients (12 patients) were cured. No obvious correlation was seen between lesions clearance and size or number of lesions. No significant difference of cure rate was seen between childhood and young sexually active patients. Seven of the 12 cured patients had all lesions almost simultaneously cleared by local hyperthermia for one targeted site.

"Based on this preliminary outcome, reasonably designed controlled clinical trials that follow will most probably consolidate the efficacy of local hyperthermia to treat MC," the authors write.