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A comparison of dapsone with 13‐cis retinoic acid in the treatment of nodular cystic acne
Author(s) -
PRENDIVILLE J.S.,
LOGAN R.A.,
RUSSELLJONES R.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
clinical and experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1365-2230
pISSN - 0307-6938
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2230.1988.tb00659.x
Subject(s) - dapsone , acne , medicine , retinoic acid , excretion , tretinoin , lesion , dermatology , gastroenterology , skin lesion , surgery , chemistry , biochemistry , gene
Summary Forty male patients with nodular/cystic acne were randomly allocated to receive either 100mg dapsone daily, or 40 mg 13‐cis retinoic acid, daily for a period of 16 weeks. The following parameters were assessed during Treatment and for a follow‐up period of 20 weeks: lesion counts (pustules, nodules and cysts), photographic evaluation, patient visual analogue scale, sebum excretion rate and skin surface microflora. Seventeen patients from each group completed the study. Only marginal clinical benefit was observed with dapsone, which produced no significant effect either on sebum excretion rate, or on skin surface microflora. By contrast, patients on 13‐cis retinoic acid showed significant reductions in sebum excretion rate and skin surface microflora, which were maximal at 16 weeks ( P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively), and significant improvements in all clinical parameters which were maintained at follow‐up 5 months later. We conclude that dapsone is clearly inferior to 13‐cis retinoic acid in the treatment of nodular cystic acne.