Oral Azithromycin Pulse Therapy and Daily Topical Benzoyl Peroxide in the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris: An Open Clinical Trial Study

Introduction: combination therapy is an effective approach to simultaneously target multiple pathogenic factor of acne. a unique combination of oral azithromycin pulse therapy and daily topical benzoyl peroxide has been developed for treatment of acne. material & methods: it was an open, controlled, clinical trial, conducted on 37 out patients with acne vulgaris. patients were clinically assessed at baseline &at week 0, 4, 8 and 12. evaluation included success rate (subjects clear or excellent improvement, good response), lesion count & percentage change in lesion count from baseline, cutaneous tolerability & adverse events. results: the combination of oral azithromycin pulse therapy & daily topical benzoyl peroxide was very safe & effective with significant differences in percentage of lesion count change observed as early as 1-4 weeks .adverse events were more frequent with the combination therapy that occurred early in the study &were transient. conclusion: this study revealed that combination regimen of azithromycin &benzoyl peroxide (4%) is indeed very much efficacious & safe in the management of acne vulgaris.