A comparative study to assess the efficacy of permethrin (topical) and ivermectin (oral) in scabies patients seeking care at a tertiary care teaching hospital of northern India

Abstract

The evidence for the superiority of Ivermectin (Oral) over topical preparations in the treatment of scabies conclusively lacks at present.  Randomized controlled trials comparing ivermectin with topical permethrin have provided us the inconclusive results.To comparatively assess the efficacy of permethrin (topical) and ivermectin (oral) in scabies patients.After enrolling 178 study subjects, they were equally distributed to two study groups (I & II) and were given the desired respective therapeutic medication or interventions. Subjects in Group I was given permethrin 5% cream, and subjects in Group B were given a single dose of tablet ivermectin orally (200 mcg/kg). Efficacy of two groups of drugs was compared in terms of improvement in clinical grading of disease (%) & development in clinical grading of pruritus (%) during follow up visits at the end of 1, 2, 4 & 6 weeks.The  mean age (± SD) for study subjects in Group I was 18.18 ± 11.33 years, whereas, in the Group II, it was 25.185 ± 10.67 years. The clinically observed cure rate among two groups i.e., Permethrin and Ivermectin at the end of the first and second weeks were 72% and 40%, and 96% and 58%, respectively. Rapid improvement in itching was noted down among subjects receiving topical permethrin as compared to those who received oral ivermectin. Comparatively, during different visits, permethrin provided better and fast improvement in itching grade than ivermectin.The improvement in scabies clinical grade and itching grade for  permethrin (topical) was found to be more efficacious in comparison to ivermectin (oral).