Abstract

Condyloma acuminatum (CA) is a common sexually transmitted disease caused by the human papillomavirus. In gastrointestinal practice, we generally encounter this disease in the anal canal but rarely in the rectum during a colonoscopy. There are many therapeutic options for CA including chemical or physical destruction, immunological therapy, or a surgical excision. All these procedures have some degree of limitations such as limited clearance rate, high recurrence rate, long duration of therapy, bleeding, release of potentially infectious aerosols, scarring etc. With argon plasma coagulation (APC), which is more available than lasers in gastrointestinal practice, a high frequency current flows through the argon plasma to the tissue, allowing well-controlled superficial tissue destruction without any direct contact between the probe and the tissue. We present a case of anal CA that was treated successfully with APC during a colonoscopy with no recurrence during the follow up. (Korean J Gastrointest Endosc 2006;33:318⁣321)

• Keywords: Condyloma acuminatum, Argon plasma coagulation, Endoscopic ablation therapy