Vedartham Kishore Kumar1
BACKGROUND
Azithromycin and doxycycline drugs are used orally in the treatment of acne vulgaris.
The aim of this study is to know the drug which is more efficacious and safe among orally administered azithromycin given in pulse dose and orally administered doxycycline given in daily dose in the treatment of patients having acne vulgaris.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this non-randomised controlled clinical study, 80 outpatients attending the Dermatology OPD, Government General Hospital, Anantapur, were taken to study the comparative efficacy and safety of oral azithromycin in pulse dose against the oral doxycycline in daily dose in the treatment of inflammatory acne vulgaris. The group A containing 44 patients suffering with inflammatory acne vulgaris were administered oral azithromycin 500 mg before meals for three consecutive days in a 10-day cycle with the remaining 7 days as drug-free days in each cycle. The group B containing 36 patients suffering with inflammatory acne vulgaris were administered oral doxycycline 100 mg daily after meals. Topical erythromycin was given to all the patients in both the groups. Clinical assessment of acne vulgaris lesions was done at 10-day intervals for both the groups of patients up to three months. Severity index described by Michaelsson was used to assess the outcome results in this study.
RESULTS
Group A patients, i.e. azithromycin treated group shows 81.01% improvement of acne vulgaris lesions, whereas group B patients, i.e. doxycycline treated group shows only 66.24% improvement of acne vulgaris lesions. Statistically significant reduction in the severity of acne vulgaris lesions in the azithromycin treated group of patients was noted in this study.
CONCLUSION
Combination of oral azithromycin in pulse dose along with topical erythromycin was significantly better than the oral doxycycline in daily dose along with topical erythromycin in the treatment of acne vulgaris. The incidence and severity of side effects are minimum in the azithromycin treated group as compared to doxycycline treated group in this study.
