TREATMENT OF HIV-RELATED HAIRY LEUKOPLAKIA WITH PODOPHYLLUM RESIN 25-PERCENT SOLUTION

Ten HIV-infected patients who had bilateral hairy leukoplakia on the t ongue were treated with topical podophyllum resin 25% solution. Only o ne side of the bilateral lesion was treated and the other side served as the control and was not treated. The lesions on both the treatment and control sides were evaluated at day 2, 7, and 30 by an investigato r who had not been involved in the initial treatment and had no knowle dge of which side had been treated. Therefore the treatment side is co mpared with the control side in a single-subject design, single-blind control setting. The lesions were judged by the degree of resolution a nd assigned a number of 0 to 4 with 4 indicating the highest degree of resolution and 0 indicating no resolution or worsening of the conditi on. The results were analyzed by Student's t test. Significant resolut ion of hairy leukoplakia was noted on the treatment side compared with the control side at the 2-, 7-, and 30-day levels; the 2-day results were the most significant. Furthermore, the patients reported minimal side effects, which included burning sensation, bad or altered taste, and pain, that were of mild intensity and short duration. The side eff ects were reported to occur immediately after the topical application. Patient tolerance and acceptance were found to be very favorable. No systemic side effect was reported. We conclude that single topical app lication of podophyllum resin 25% solution is efficacious in producing significant short-term resolution of HIV-related oral hairy leukoplak ia. We also conclude that it is a safe topical regimen with minimal si de effects.