ABSTRACT
Back ground: The most common cause of mouth ulcers is recurrent aphthous stomatitis [RAS]. There is no effective treatment for RAS and its exact etiology is obscure. One of the postulated causes is viral or bacterial infection and the role of herpes simplex virus was mentioned and treatment with Acyclovir reported to cause reduction in severity of disease. Oral polio virus vaccine [OPV] is reported to be effective in treatment of recurrent herpes simplex [RHS] According to our observation during recent years OPV not only is effective in management of RHS but also in some patient with concomitant RAS reduced its severity and frequency
Objective: Evaluation of the efficacy of OPV in the management of RAS
Material and Method: In a longitudinal, case-controls study forty-eight patients with RAS recruited. 20 patients received OPV and 28 patients received placebo. OPV was given 4 drops in monthly Interval for 3 months and with similar manner for placebo group .The results were studied 3 months after the last doses
Result: In final Assessment, 40% of OPV group had significant reduction in the period of attacks as in placebo group was zero [p=0.048]. The frequency of attacks was reduced in 65% of OPV group, and in 21.4% of placebo group [p=0.006]. The severity of attacks was reduced in 60% of OPV group and in 14.3% of placebo group [p=0.008]
Conclusion: OPV appears to be effective in management of RAS