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To the Editor.—
We have recently observed two patients in our outpatient clinic who had similar experiences related to the clearing of their skin lesions after a major operation.One patient, a 30-year-old woman, had on many occasions come to our clinic with extensive periungual and plantar warts. Many topical and surgical modalities had failed to permanently remove the verrucae. Two weeks after a cholecystectomy, however, all the warts disappeared. She has had no recurrence of her warts one year postsurgery.The other patient, a 56-year-old man, had had a 20-year history of extensive psoriasis, including several episodes of erythroderma, necessitating hospitalization on numerous occasions. Two to three weeks after a cholecystectomy, he became lesion-free and has remained so without medications for six months.Perhaps our observations in these patients are coincidental, but I would be interested in learning of similar observations by other physicians.