The Studies on the Concomitant Diseases and Combined Medication in Patients with Onychomycosis / 대한의진균학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: We performed this survey to provide the information about how many patients with onychomycosis have concomitant diseases and combined medication and to gauge about the drug interaction risk of antifungal agent. METHOD: The findings presented in this report are based on total 569 onychomycosis patients, with KOH positive, who visited 6 university hospitals from February 2007 to March 2007. RESULT: The patients with onychomycosis had concomitant diseases (43.1%) and used combination medication (36.4%). The majority of the patient have concomitant diseases, such as hypertension (12.2%), diabetic melitus (9.5%) and hyperlipidemia (4.1%), more frequent in elderly patients. Main factor to choose antifungal agent for the cure of onychomycosis is the efficacy of the medication (55%), as well as, the safety and drug interaction risk of antifungal agent, more important in case of the patient taking a variety of concomitant drugs. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that physicians should be aware of the potential interaction of the medications in order to prevent or reduce the burden of adverse events. It is required to have more cautious choice of oral antifungal agent in those patients who are taking combined medications in patients with onycomycosis.