A Comparative Study on Efficacy of Azithromycin and Doxycycline in the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris at a Tertiary Care Centre

Comparing the efficacy of doxycycline and azithromycin in the treatment of patients with acne vulgaris. A total of 110 patients with acne vulgaris participated in this comparative, prospective, longitudinal study and were randomly assigned to two groups (azithromycin and doxycycline). Grading of scores were determined and recorded at baseline using the sign and symptom scores validated by Jerry KL Tan whereas the severity of acne was evaluated by counting the number of lesions. Patients were followed up for a period of 4 weeks. Clinical assessment was made at the end of 4 weeks and data was analysed. Pre and post treatment evaluations were done by using score scale where the number of non-inflammatory, inflammatory and total lesions were counted. Chi-square test was used to compare the results and p < 0.05 was considered to be statistical significant. The mean age group of the participants was 21.26 (SD=5.94) years. In both the study groups, the female participants outnumbered males and the male:female ratio was 1:3. With respect to the participants receiving Azithromycin, the percentage and severity of non-inflammatory lesions, in the mild category was 60% in the post treatment as compared to 40% in the pretreatment group which reveals positive outcome post treatment to Azithromycin. Similarly, in Doxycycline treated group, the percentage and severity of non- inflammatory lesions, in mild category was 63.6% in the post treatment as compared to 32.7% in the pretreatment group which reveals that there was improvement of approximately 30% case progressed from moderate to mild category. However, no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) in efficacy was found when the azithromycin treated group was compared with doxycycline treated group after one month of therapy. Both drugs were effective in reducing the severity of Acne vulgaris when compared separately before and after therapy with azithromycin being a little superior in the reduction of the percentage of number of inflammatory lesions than Doxycycline. The reduction in the percentage in the number of inflammatory lesions post 1 month was better with azithromycin group as compared to Doxycycline, whereas there was improvement with respect to the reduction in number of noninflammatory lesions and total lesions in both groups but was not significant between the groups However, there was no significant difference between the efficacy of Azithromycin and Doxycycline treated group after one month period of therapy.