Itraconazole pulse therapy in the treatment of onychomycosis

Objective: to evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral pulse dose of itraconazole in the treatment of onychomycosis. patients and methods: it was an open non-comparative clinical trial, conducted on 23 cases of onychomycosis in the department of dermatology and venereology, national medical college, dhaka, bangladesh. all clinically diagnosed cases were confirmed mycologically and treated with oral itraconazole 200 mg twice daily for the first week of the month for four cycles. clinical and mycological follow-up was done at completion of treatment and monthly for four months. results: after completion of the treatment, clinically 30.4% were completely cured, 65.2% partially cured and 4.4% were failures. at follow up after four months of treatment 39.2% were completely cured, 56.5 % partially cured and 4.4% were failures. mycologically elimination rate at the end of treatment was 69.6% and four months after treatment was 78.3%. no adverse side effects were found in any patient. conclusion: monthly seven days pulse therapy of itraconazole 400 mg per day for four cycles is clinically and mycologically effective for the treatment of onychomycosis.