Verrucae planae are considered by most authorities to be due to a filtrable virus.1 A clinical note on treatment of molluscum contagiosum with aureomycin by Guy and associates2 prompted my use of this antibiotic in an extensive case of verrucae planae of the face in a young child.
The difficulty of handling an extensive case in children where cooperation is necessary in the painful procedures of solid carbon dioxide applications, curettage and application of trichloroacetic acid, for example, as reported in all dermatologic texts, makes a simple remedy, if efficacious, highly desirable.
D. U., aged 6, was seen with approximately 80 lesions of typical flat discrete verrucae of the face and a few scattered lesions on the dorsa of both hands, of one year's duration.
A 10 per cent solution of trichloroacetic acid was prescribed to be used at night in order to macerate superficially the keratin layer,