International Journal of Research in Dermatology (IJORD): Published on May, 2021

The   number   of   new   cases   of dermatophytosis   on   the   rise   but also   a   humungous number  of  patients  are  experiencing  a  great  degree  of relapses  and  recurrences. 

Causes   like   drug   resistance,   poor   drug compliance, inadequate therapy and topical steroid abuse as the potential causes for such a trend. 

Other predisposing    factors    for    dermatophyte    infections    like diabetes   mellitus, poor   personal   hygiene, immune-suppression, atopy and corticosteroid abuse should be kept in mind during treatment.

Authors  conducted this trial primarily with objective of studying the efficacy of  various  systemic  drugs  and  their  therapeutic  response in  all  types  of  dermatophytic  infections.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE:

This  study  was  done  to  compare  the  outcome  of systemic  administration  of  itraconazole,  fluconazole  and terbinafine  in  different  groups  of  patients  treated  for superficial fungal infections under close clinical examination at regular follow up intervals and to find out the most effective drug in terms of clinical remission and absence of relapse.

Response to itraconazole  and  terbinafine was  good  in  majority  of patients  (72.2%  and  42.2%  respectively)  while  it  was poor in 16.7% of the patients for fluconazole.

From  the  above  study  conducted,  authors concluded that itraconazole  was  the  most  superior  antifungal  drug  in terms of clinical remission which led to a considerable decrease in erythema, peripheral spread, scaling and spread to other body sites.

This was closely followed by terbinafine in terms of drug being effective in superficial fungal   infection   patients.   Fluconazole   was   the   least effective drug based on the parameters defined in this study.

Hence in this study authors advocate the use of itraconazole as first line of drug in all patients of tinea infections.