. 2021 Jun 24;314(6):515–525. doi: 10.1007/s00403-021-02264-5

Table 2.

Summary of local, non-systemic, and minimally invasive treatment options for calcinosis cutis

Treatment modality	n	Maximal diameter of the largest lesion (cm)	Treatment frequency, range	Median (range) treatment duration (months)^a	Median (range) time to the first clinical improvement (months)^a	Response rates, %, n/N	Adverse events (number of patients)
STS
Topical	48	13	Twice a week to three times a day	3.9 (0.3–24)	4.0 (0.5–11)	Complete, 19, 9/48	Transient pruritus (1), recurrence (1), skin irritation (2), zinc ointment allergy (1)
						Partial, 63, 30/48
						None, 6, 3/48
						Unknown, 13, 6/48
Intralesional	53	65	Single session to once a month	1.0 (0.5–21)	1.0 (0.25–4)	Complete, 36, 19/53	Infection (5), injection pain (6^b), blistering (1), skin discoloration (N/R)
						Partial, 38, 20/53
						None, 25, 13/53
						Unknown, 2, 1/53
Laser
CO₂	18	2.0	One to three sessions	N/A^c	N/A^c	Complete, 57, 12/21	Infection (2), recurrence (2), scaring or hyperkeratosis (10), hypopigmentation (2), itching or burning (2)
Er:YAG	1	< 2.0				Partial, 14, 3/21
Diode	1	N/R				Unknown, 29, 6/21^d
Picosecond + CO₂	1	N/R				Unknown, 29, 6/21^d
ESWL	11	< 20.0	Single session to twice a month	2.25 (1–2.25)	N/A^c	Complete, 9, 1/11	Transient fever (1)
						Partial, 55, 6/11
						None, 27, 3/11
						Unknown, 9, 1/11
Combined
ESWL + intralesional STS	1	5.0	Once a week	5.5	N/R	Partial, 100, 1/1	Crater-like defects (N/R)
Picosecond + topical STS	2	5.0	Twice a week to twice a month	6.0	N/R	Partial, 100, 2/2	None

Er:YAG erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet, ESWL extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, N/A not applicable, N/R not reported, STS sodium thiosulfate

^aMissing data were managed by available case analysis and mean imputation was used when a mean was known for a variable of interest but exact values were not reported for individual cases from a single study

^bOlesen et al. [17] also reported injection pain, however, without an exact number of cases experiencing it

^cA group of patients was too small

^dBottomley et al. [13] reported outcomes as for particular lesions instead of describing overall response in each patient