Local hyperthermia in the treatment of sporotrichosis.

Summary:  21 patients with sporotrichosis underwent treatment of local hyperthermia using a pocket warmer. The treatment was performed 1–3 times a day, totalling 40–60 minutes per day, until the lesions healed with scarformation. As a result, “complete cure” was observed in 18 patients, “relapse” in 1 and “improvement” in 2. In the 18 patients with complete cure, the period of treatment was 5–13 weeks (mean ± SD: 8.5 ± 2.5 weeks), and was not affected by sex, age, sites of lesions or clinical types. Because heat resistant strains were not detected by thermotolerance tests of isolates, the reason for failure was suspected to be mainly due to the misuse of the pocket warmer. It was, therefore, thought that the application technique of a pocket warmer was the most important factor in the success of the local hyperthermic therapy.