The successful treatment of prurigo pigmentosa with macrolide antibiotics

Recent studies have demonstrated that macrolide antibiotics have anti-infla mmatory as well as antibacterial effects. Therefore, macrolide antibiotics have been successfully used to treat patients with various inflammatory dis eases. We evaluated the effect of macrolide antibiotics in 4 patients with prurigo pigmentosa who were treated with either 400 mg of clarithromycin or 300 mg of roxyihromycin daily. Eruption and pruritus disappeared with in a week in all the patients while those symptoms were unresponsive to other d rugs. Although the mechanism of this effect remains unclear in patients wit h prurigo pigmentosa, macrolide antibiotics can be considered as an alterna tive treatment for prurigo pigmentosa. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Bas el.