A Comparative Study of Efficacy of Oral Terbinafine and Oralitraconazole in Tinea Corporis / Tinea Cruris Infection

Abstract

Dermatophytoses which are superficial fungal infections of the skin, hair, and nail are among the most common infective dermatoses seen in dermatology outpatient clinics. Today, we are facing an onslaught of chronic and recurrent dermatophytosis in volumes never encountered previously. Itraconazole was found to be the better antifungal in terms of clinical cure,mycological clearance and less need for extension of treatment than Terbinafine. Overall, oral Itraconazole 200 mg/day for 2 weeks proved to be a better agent with excellent and significantly better cure rates than oral Terbinafine 500mg/day for 2 weeks. With Itraconazole, the contra-indications, drug interactions must be kept in mind to prevent loss of efficacy/ potentially hazardous interactions. Both drugs had a good safety profile and few minor adverse events. The reasons for extension of treatment comprise chronicity, previous treatment with OTC steroid preparations, and misuse of systemic antifungal drugs, diabetes, and obesity. Poor personal practices and hygiene also havetheir contribution. Significant associations were also noted between diabetes and chronicity.

A comparative study on efficacy of oral terbinafine and itraconazole on dermatophytic infections

“…7 A number of studies in the past have compared Itraconazole and Terbinafine for their efficacy in treatment of dermatophyte infection. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] However, there is still controversy regarding the projection of better of these two modalities and what should be the appropriate drugdose regimen to obtain the optimum results with minimal adverse effects.…”

No evidence of resistance to itraconazole in a prospective real-world trial of dermatomycosis in India

“…Oral fluconazole, griseofulvin, itraconazole and terbinafine have been used extensively. Itraconazole has remained an important treatment choice for superficial fungal infections and has shown its clinical value in India due to increasing resistance to other antifungals [ 18 – 20 ], atypical and unusual presentations of dermatophytosis [ 21 ] and the Trichophyton mentagrophytes pandemic in recent years [ 4 , 22 ]. Cases of treatment failures have also been reported with itraconazole, though not linked to anti-fungal resistance [ 8 , 20 , 23 ].…”