Efficacy of Systemic Metronidazole in the Treatment of Rosacea / 대한피부과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have revealed that several factors including Demodex mites induce an excessive immune response and that the skin lesions seen in patients with rosacea may develop as a result of excessive inflammation. Therefore, acaricidal and anti-inflammatory treatments such as systemic metronidazole have been shown to be efficacious for rosacea. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of systemic metronidazole in the treatment of rosacea. METHODS: A group of 39 patients diagnosed with rosacea who visited the Department of Dermatology of Ulsan University Hospital from April 2014 to July 2015 was investigated in this single-center retrospective study. Patients were treated with metronidazole 250 mg 3 times daily for 3 weeks. The response was evaluated using serial photographs of the patients. According to clinical improvement, patients were classified into an effective group and a failure group. RESULTS: After treatment, 29 patients (74.4%) responded to systemic metronidazole treatment. Fourteen patients (48.3%) in the effective group were well controlled without recurrence for 20.1 weeks. Patients in the effective group showed a higher detection rate of Demodex mites and proportion of the papulopustular rosacea subtype than patients in the failure group. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that systemic metronidazole was a tolerable and effective option for the treatment of patients with papulopustular rosacea with Demodex mites. Moreover, the early treatment of inflammatory lesions leads to an improved prognosis.