Case Reports
4 November 2024
Vol. 17 No. 2 (2025)
https://doi.org/10.4081/dr.2024.9979

Pediatric genital warts successfully treated with photodynamic therapy

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Genital warts, photodynamic therapy, human papillomavirus, HPV, child sexual abuse
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Authors

Federica Li Pomi
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6760-9468
Department of Precision Medicine in Medical, Surgical and Critical Care, University of Palermo, Italy.
Andrea d'Aloja
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5444-2054
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Dermatology, University of Messina, Italy.
Antonio Di Tano
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Dermatology, University of Messina, Italy.
Mario Vaccaro
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Dermatology, University of Messina, Italy.
Francesco Borgia
fborgia@unime.it
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Dermatology, University of Messina, Italy.
Genital warts (GWs) are the most common sexually transmitted infections worldwide, caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). In adults, the primary mode of transmission is through sexual contact, whereas in children, it can occur through skin-to-skin or skin-to-mucosa contact and be sexual or non-sexual. The increasing prevalence of GWs in children has renewed the interest in therapeutic management, which still presents a unique challenge, being influenced by many variables, including size, quantity, and location of warts, as well as the presence of comorbidities. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has already shown encouraging results in treating viral warts in adult patients, but its use is still not standardized in the pediatric population. On this topic, we report the case of an otherwise healthy 5-year-old child affected by GWs, successfully treated with three sessions of PDT with 10% 5-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) at one-month intervals. Our case is paradigmatic of the potential of PDT to treat difficult lesions in a pediatric setting.  

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Pediatric genital warts successfully treated with photodynamic therapy. (2024). Dermatology Reports, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/dr.2024.9979
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