What is the natural history of condyloma accuminata (genital warts) untreated?
In order to know how effective a treatment is at getting rid of the warts, we need to know how often the warts go away on their own without any treatment. We can learn that from the few studies that have be done in which patients did not receive any treatment for years and years. Also the studies which have been performed using a placebo control can indicate how often the lesions go away over the short term. • In children followed for a long time with condyloma accuminata, over 50% regress by 5 years. • In men who did not have treatment for genital warts, it took an average of about 15 months for 50% of them to have spontaneous regression of their lesions. • In a placebo controlled trial of 16 weeks of condyloma treatment in women, only 11% of lesions cleared spontaneously. How often do the warts recur after treatment? Depending upon the treatment used, different recurrence rates have been noted. The most common treatment currently used is a self-applied, 5% imiquimod cream (Aldara®) t
