TERBINAFINE IN ONYCHOMYCOSIS WITH INVOLVEMENT BY NON-DERMATOPHYTIC FUNGI

Sixty-five patients with onychomycosis involving the yeasts Candida al bicans or C. parapsilosis, or the mould Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, we re treated for up to 48 weeks with terbinafine 250 mg daily. At the en d of therapy mycological and clinical cure rates were 70% and 54% for C.albicans, and 85% and 63% for C. parapsilosis, respectively. Three o ut of seven S. brevicaulis infections were cured. Within 6 months of t herapy, relapses occurred in 45.5% of the cured patients in the case o f C. albicans infections and in 12.5% of the cured patients in the cas e of C. parapsilosis infections. Treatment was generally well tolerate d and, although adverse events occurred in 43% of the patients, they w ere responsible for cessation of therapy in only 8.6%. These results i ndicate that the use of terbinafine in onychomycosis is not restricted to dermatophyte infections.