TY - JOUR AU - Ahmad, Shama AU - Aman, Shahbaz AU - Nadeem, Muhammad AU - Kazmi, Atif Hasnain PY - 2012/11/09 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Efficacy and safety of Oral Azithromycin in the Treatment of Mild to Moderate Acne Vulgaris JF - Annals of King Edward Medical University JA - Annals KEMU VL - 17 IS - 4 SE - Articles DO - 10.21649/akemu.v17i4.582 UR - https://annalskemu.org/journal/index.php/annals/article/view/582 SP - 437 AB - <p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>Background:&nbsp;&nbsp;Acne is a very common skin disorder in our society. Azithromycin, an oral macrolide, has been found to be a new treatment for this disease.</p> <p><strong>Objective:</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;To assess the efficacy and safety of alter-nate day oral azithromycin 500 mg in the treatment of mild to moderate acne vulgaris.</p> <p><strong>Design: </strong>&nbsp;A quasi - experimental study.</p> <p>Place and Duration of Study:&nbsp;&nbsp;The study was con-ducted at the Department of Dermatology, Unit - I, KEMU / Mayo Hospital, Lahore, during the six mon-ths period from 11<sup>th </sup>April to 10<sup>th</sup> October, 2009.</p><strong> Subjects and Methods:</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;One hundred and twenty patients of acne vulgaris were enrolled and baseline lesions were recorded. All patients were advised to<strong>&nbsp;</strong>take azithromycin 500 mg thrice a week orally for a period of 8 weeks after which they were followed up for the next 8 weeks at 2 weeks interval. The mean facial lesion count at baseline and after 8 weeks thera-py was performed in all the cases. The treatment was considered excellent if there was clearance of &gt;80% of lesions, good at 50 - 80% clearance and poor if there was clearance of &lt; 50% of lesions. The safety of treat-ment administered was assessed on the basis of local or systemic side effects of the drug. <p><strong>Results:</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Out of 120 evaluable patients, there were 53 males and 67 females. Mean age of the patients was 21.2 &plusmn; 4.1 years. The mean facial lesion count after 8 weeks therapy was much reduced. The treatment reve-aled an excellent response in 79 (66%) patients, good in 31 (26%) and poor in 10 (8%) cases. Azithromycin was well tolerated by all the patients.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Azithromycin 500mg thrice weekly for 8 weeks is found to be an effective and safe treatment for acne vulgaris.</p> <p><strong>Key Words:</strong> &nbsp;Acne, vulgaris, azithromycin, macrolide.</p> ER -