Article: Efficacy of daily oral terbinafine versus pulse fluconazole therapy in the treatment of tinea corporis, tinea cruris, and tinea faciei: A Comparative Study
Someshwar S, Salunke P, Bhobe M. Efficacy of daily oral terbinafine versus pulse fluconazole therapy in the treatment of tinea corporis, tinea cruris, and tinea faciei: A comparative study. MGM Journal of Medical Sciences. 2020;7(1):10. doi:https://doi.org/10.4103/mgmj.mgmj_30_20
This study looked at the comparative efficacy of various treatment methods available to treat tinea infections such as tinea corporis and tinea cruris. 90 subjects with a variation of tinea were included in this study. There were three treatment arms of the study which consisted of Terbinafine 250mg once daily for a total of 2 weeks, Terbinafine 250mg twice daily for 1 week total and Fluconazole 150mg one time weekly for 4 weeks. Following the conclusion of each treatment method, all three treatment groups showed improvements in symptoms. The group which was treated with Terbinafine daily for 2 weeks had the most significant improvement (93.3%) in regards to symptom improvement and absolvement of the rash. The second most successful treatment arm was Terbinafine twice daily for 1 week with a success rate of 86.7%. Lastly, Fluconazole once weekly for four weeks was shown to have 83.3% improvement. Subjects treated with Fluconazole had the most GI adverse reactions compared to the other two treatment groups. Lastly, recurrence rates were most prevalent in the group treated with Fluconazole (12%), while daily Terbinafine was associated with the fewest relapses (3.57%). This research suggests that while all treatment options that were looked at can be used to treat tinea, Terbinafine dosed once daily for two weeks is associated with the highest success rate and lowest recurrence rate combined.