COMPARISON OF TERBINAFINE AND CLOTRIMAZOLE IN TREATING TINEA-PEDIS

Objective-To compare the efficacy and safety of terbinafine 1% cream a nd clotrimazole 1% cream in the treatment of tinea pedis. Design-Multi centre, double blind parallel group study. Setting-32 general practice s and one hospital. Patients-256 patients with mycologically confirmed tinea pedis. Of the 211 patients evaluable, 107 were randomised to te rbinafine (75 male, 32 female; mean (range) age 40 (12-81) years) and 104 to clotrimazole (79 male, 25 female; mean (range) age 36 (12-71) y ears). Interventions-Terbinafine 1% cream applied twice daily for one week and inert cream applied twice daily for the next three weeks. Clo trimazole 1% cream applied twice daily for four weeks. Main outcome me asures-Mycological cure (negative results on microscopy and culture) a nd effective treatment (mycological cure plus no or minimal signs and symptoms) measured at weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. Results-At week four ra tes of mycological cure were 93.5% for terbinafine and 73.1% for clotr imazole (p=0.0001); and at week six 97.2% for terbinafine and 83.7% fo r clotrimazole (p=0.001). Rates of effective treatment at week 4 were 89.7% for terbinafine and 58.7% for clotrimazole (p=0.0001); and 89.7% for terbinafine and 73.1% for clotrimazole (p=0.002) at week 6. Concl usion-These results indicate that a one week course of terbinafine 1% cream is more effective in the treatment of tinea pedis than a four we ek course of clotrimazole 1% cream, both in terms of mycological cure and effective treatment.