Comparison of efficacy of continuous terbinafine versus intermittent itraconazole in the treatment of toenail onychomycosis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66344/jpad.v31i3.1630Keywords:
Toenail onychomycosis, terbinafine, itraconazole.Abstract
Objective To compare efficacy of continuous terbinafine versus intermittent itraconazole in the treatment of onychomycosis.
Methods This randomized controlled trial was conducted in the Department of Dermatology Nishtar Medical College and Hospital Multan from 20-05-2018 to 20-11-20. A total of 64 patients meeting inclusion criteria were randomly allocated in to two groups by lottery method. Group A, having 32 patients, was treated with 250 mg terbinafine, given orally once daily for 12 weeks while group B, having 32 patients, was treated with itraconazole 400 mg per day (orally twice a day as 200 mg per dose), given intermittently for one week per month followed by a 3 week drug free period for a total duration of 12 weeks. Patients were called for follow up at 16 week and efficacy was documented.
Results Of these 64 study cases, 39 (60.9 %) were male patients while 25 (39.1 %) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 52.67±9.09 years. Our study results have indicated that majority of our study cases i.e. 39 (60.9 %) were aged more than 50 years. Mean disease duration was 4.45±2.53 years and 57 (89.1 %) had duration of illness more than 1 year. Efficacy was noted in 33 (51.6%) of our study cases, it was 23 (71.9%) in group A while efficacy was noted in 10 (31.2%) in group B patients (p=0.002).
Conclusion Our study results support the use of oral terbinafine in the treatment of toenail onychomycosis as compared with intermittent itraconazole as oral terbinafine was significantly highly efficacious.
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