Abstract
BACKGROUND: Extragenital warts (E-GWs) are common benign skin lesions caused by human papilloma virus. Surprisingly, there is no clear data about the impact of multiple E-GWs on quality of life in immune-competent adult patients in comparison to GWs, which have been frequently reported to exhibit a strong negative impact on life quality. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study investigated the impact of multiple E-GWs on quality of life in immune-competent adults as they are more commonly encountered in daily practice than their genital counterpart in the Egyptian population. Hundred patients with multiple E-GWs (aged 18-67 years, 46 females, 54 males) and 100 patients with multiple GWs (aged 18-55 years, 56 females, 44 males) were included. Cause for immune suppression in the patients was not known. A hard copy of the validated Arabic (Egypt) version of Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) questionnaire was used with permission. RESULTS: The DLQI total scores range was 5-14 with a mean of 11.2 ± 2.5 in GWs and 1-24 with a mean of 13.0 ± 5.8 in E-GWs, which are statistically significant (P=0.009). To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the impact of E-GWs on life quality of immune-competent adults. CONCLUSION: E-GWs can have a very strong negative impact on patients' daily life. We highly encourage all treating physicians to use the "bio-psycho-social" model when facing patients with E-GWs in an attempt to secure the best life quality for our patients.