Efficacy of cotrimoxazole and PUVA for the management of chronic folliculitus of legs

Abstract

Twenty five patients with chronic follicufitis of legs (CFL) were treated with cotimoxazole and 8-methoxypsoralen followed by exposure to sunlight for 15 minutes. In another 20 patients taken as control 8-MOP was substituted with a placebo. After 45 days 19 (90.5%) patients in the study group as compared-to 11 (55%) in the control group were free of lesions (p). At the end of 3 months 10 (62.5%) out of 16 patients in the study group as compared to 3 (30%) out of 10 patients in the control group showed improvement which was statistically not significant (p ). Coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the pus in all the 45 cases. In vitro experiments were carried out by mixing the Staphylococcus with a solution of 50 micro -gm/ml of 8 MOP, 1200 micro -gm/ml cotrimoxazole and 50 micro-gm/ml8-MOP mixture, 1200 micro -gm/ml of cotrimoxazole and saline. A part of each of the samples was exposed to sunlight for 15 minutes between 3 pm and 3.15 pm and then streaked on blood agar medium Remaining part was streaked without sun exposure. Inhibition of growth was observed with photoactivated 8 - MOP, cotrimoxazole and 8-MOP mixture and cotrimoxazole, both with and without exposure to sunlight. Sunlight alone did not inhibit the growth.