High mebendazole doses in pulmonary and hepatic hydatid disease.

Abstract

Thirty nine children with 71 hydatid cysts were given mebendazole orally in a dose of 100-200 mg/kg/day for 12 weeks and were followed up for a mean (SD) of 63 (24) (67) 10 (27) Improvement (%) 2 (6) 11 (30) Failure (%) 9 (27) 16 (43) 'Tere was one cyst found in the spleen, which did not respond to treatment.differences were also found in the hepatic cysts (3-93 (1-87) and 7-78 (3 08) cm, respectively, p<O-OOl).Of the 39 patients 20 (three of them after a second course) were cured and two with multiple cysts avoided at least one operation. Nine of the 20 cured patients had multiple cysts in one or more organs.The mean (SD) plasma mebendazole concentration two hours after the morning dose was 116 (47) ng/ml. Serious side effects from mebendazole were not observed. Seven children had a low grade fever, two children had gastric discomfort, and two others had a transient moderate rise of transaminase activity.

Experience with video-assisted thoracoscopic removal of pulmonary hydatid cysts in children

“…In general, drug penetration into the cyst is in reverse proportion to the thickness of the pericystic fibrous capsule that is thinner in children when compared to adults. For the same reason, children respond to medical treatment better than adults [10,11]. However, in all our cases, the cyst size was greater than 6 cm.…”

Brain Penetration and Efficacy of Different Mebendazole Polymorphs in a Mouse Brain Tumor Model

“…It is noteworthy that in some human trials MBZ achieved lower plasma levels than in mice as the amino and hydroxy metabolites reached two- to ten-fold the plasma levels of the parental MBZ (24, 25), which could indicate higher metabolic enzyme activities in human. Thus, much higher doses up to 200 mg/kg/day could be tolerated in human and should be used in future human brain tumor therapy (26). …”

Treatment of Hydatid Disease

“…[23] High dose treatment with mebendazole 100 to 200 mg/kg/day for 3 months has also been used in children successfully and without serious adverse effects. [1] Messaritakis et al [24] treated 39 paediatric patients with mebendazole 100 to 200 mg/kg/day for 12 weeks and found that 23 of them were cured. Mebendazole 50 to 200 mg/kg/day for 6 weeks was also given to patients aged between 10 and 72 years who were ineligible for surgery; 50% of these patients were cured.…”