Background: viral warts are benign proliferations of the skin and mucosa that are caused by HPV infection. They consider common and major health problem. Zinc can be a therapeutic option by medulating the immune system in patients with viral warts. Objective: the aim of this work was to compare the effect of oral zinc sulfate versus electrocautery in treatment of patients with recurrent warts. Patients and Methods: this study was carried on 90 patients with common warts. The patients were divided into three groups (A, B, C) of 30 patients. Group A consisted of 30 patients treated with oral zinc sulfate, 30 patients in group B treated by electrocautery while group C was given placebo in the form of starch capsules. Results: our results showed more improvement in group of electrocautery than in the group of zinc sulphate, and showed increase in complications in electrocautery group with statistically significant difference. In this study there was a positive correlation between percentage of improvement and serum level of zinc with a significance increase in the serum zinc level before and after treatment in zinc sulphate group. Conclusion: this study showed that the role of oral zinc sulphate as a systemic treatment modality for common warts could have the advantage of being non-invasive, non scarring and with minimal side effects, but it was not very effective so it can be taken with other modalities of treatment and not as monotherapy.