Efficacy of Oral Azithromycin versus Doxycycline in the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris

Abstract

Introduction: Acne vulgaris is one of the most common skin disease affecting adolescence of either sex, globally. Antibiotics like macrolides and tetracycline have been used with good results, studies comparing their efficacy are lacking. The present study compare the efficacy of Azithromycin v/s Doxycycline in acne vulgaris.

Aims: To compare the efficacy of Azithromycin and Doxycycline in the treatment of acne vulgaris.

Methods: This is a prospective hospital based comparative study, conducted on 80 patients attending outpatient department of Dermatology, Nepalgunj Medical College Teaching Hospital with acne vulgaris from July 2019 to April 2020. Patient were divided alternately into two groups, Group A received Azithromycin (n=40) and Group B Doxycycline (n=40) and compared the effects of treatment at 6 and 12 weeks. Efficacy assessment was done according to simple acne grading system.

Results: Acne was predominant in female (62.5%) as compared to male (37.5%). Patient between 16 to 20 years age group were more prone to acne (47.5%). Most of the patients had Grade II acne before treatment in both groups (Azithromycin 52.5%, Doxycycline 55%). After the treatment most of them improve to Grade I at 6 weeks (Azithromycin 50%, Doxycycline 55%) and to Grade zero at 12 weeks (Azithromycin 42.5%, Doxycycline 67.5%).There was no statistically significant difference in treatment efficacy between the two groups at 6 weeks but at 12 weeks efficacy of Doxycycline was significantly better than Azithromycin.

Conclusion:  Both oral Azithromycin and Doxycycline when given for treatment of acne vulgaris the analysis showed good improvement after 6 weeks of treatment but there was no statistically significant difference in the improvement in both groups (p 0.771). However after 12 weeks patient receiving Doxycycline showed statistically significant improvement (p 0.035) in comparison to the patients receiving Azithromycin.