EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF VORICONAZOLE IN THE TREATMENT OF TINEA CORPORIS AND CRURIS INFECTIONS

Abstract

Background: Dermatophytosis is a frequent superficial fungal infection in a large segment of the world's population. Conventional anti-fungals have become less effective due to increased resistance and recurrent infections, therefore other systemic anti-fungals like voriconazole are needed. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral voriconazole in the treatment of tinea corporis and tinea cruris infections. Methods: The present study was done in the Department of Dermatology, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Hospital at Larkana for a period of six months. Patients aged 18–60 years with clinically diagnosed tinea corporis and/or tinea cruris were consecutively sampled and a total of 98 patients were enrolled. All patients were treated with oral voriconazole 200 mg twice daily for 28 days and followed up at 2, 4 and 12 weeks. The efficacy of the treatment was evaluated by complete and incomplete clinical cure, and safety was evaluated by adverse effects. Data was analyzed using SPSS version (25). Results: The average age of the subjects was 34.7 ± 10.2 years and males accounted for 62.2% of the study population. The most common symptom was pruritus. At 12 weeks follow up, complete clinical cure was obtained in 85.7% of the patients and incomplete clinical cure was obtained in 14.3% of the patients. Few patients experienced mild adverse reactions such as headache, nausea, blurred vision, rash and vertigo, none of which were serious. Conclusion: Oral voriconazole showed good efficacy and tolerability in the treatment of tinea corporis and tinea cruris infections. The results indicate that voriconazole could be a valuable therapeutic alternative in resistant or recurrent dermatophytosis. Further studies with larger numbers of centres are recommended to confirm these results.