Therapeutic Effectiveness of Oral Itraconazole for Cutaneous Sporotrichosis

Won, Young Ho; Jeon, Seon Do; Kim, Seong Jin; Lee, Seung Chul

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of some therapeutic modalities for cutaneous sporotrichosis may be changed depending on the individual and geographic characteristics, and the clinical type. Itraconazole has been known to be effective for it, however, there have been no standard and ideal guideline on the oral dosage and duration yet.
OBJECTIVE
& METHODS: In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of oral itraconazole in patients with cutaneous sporotrichosis in relation to dosage and clinical status. The observation of 17 patients with sporotrichosis were made retrospectively Oral itraconazole was administered at the dose of 200 mg daily in 15 adults over 18 years old and 100 mg in the other 2 children.
RESULTS
The duration for healing was within 30 days in 4 cases, within 60 days in 4 cases, within 90 days in 2 cases, within 120 days in 3 cases, and within 150 days of therapy in 2 cases. The average duration in all cases was 12.1+/-8.6 weeks. Comparison our results to the previous reported one revealed that more shorter treatment time was needed in cases treated with 200 mg daily than that with 100 mg. There was no treatment failure by drug intolerance or resistance. The duration for healing was significantly shorter in the patient groups with prevalence duration more than 5 months, however there was not any significant difference in sex of patients, and the clinical types. The cases with the lesion on the face and cases with fixed type tended to be healed more rapidly than the others.
CONCLUSION
Oral itraconazole may be a safe and e(fictive antifungal agent for the treatment of cutaneous sporotrichosis in a daily dose of 200 mg for 3 months on the average. However, duration for healing could be influenced by the clinical status.