Once‐weekly oral doses of fluconazole 150 mg in the treatment of tinea corporis/cruris and cutaneous candidiasis

Ninety‐five adult out‐patients with tinea corporis and/or tinea cruris participated in a multicentre open non‐comparative study investigating the safety and efficacy of 1–4 once‐weekly doses of oral fluconazole 150 mg. Trichophyton rubrum was isolated most frequently (67 of 86 mycologically evaluable patients), A mean of 2.6 doses of fluconazole was administered; patients infected with Candida albicans or Epidermophyton floccosum required an average of 2 doses compared to 3–4 doses in patients infected with other organisms. Clinical cure was obtained in 85 of 92 (92%) patients at the last post‐treatment evaluation, with the remaining seven patients being substantially improved. At long‐term follow‐up, 28–30 days after the last dose, 80 of 91 (88%) patients were assessed as clinically cured, three (3%) patients were improved and eight (9%) patients failed. Among the long‐term clinical failures, there was one diagnosis of tinea corporis (3% failure rate) and seven diagnoses of tinea cruris (12% failure rate). Mycological evidence of infection occurred in only 1 of 86 patients assessed at the last post‐treatment follow‐up. Mycological relapse occurred in nine (11%) patients at long‐term follow‐up; one patient was infected with Trichophyton mentagrophytes and eight patients were infected with T. rubrum. Relapse occurred in 2 of 29 (7%) patients with tinea corporis and eight of 57 (14%) patients with tinea cruris (one patient who relapsed had both tinea corporis and cruris). There was no correlation between the number of doses received and the mycological response or relapse rates at long‐term follow‐up. Fluconazole was well tolerated; only 5 of 95 fluconazole‐treated patients reported adverse effects, one of which resulted in discontinuation of therapy (moderate urticaria). The good tolerability relative to some other oral antifungals and the convenience of the once‐weekly oral‐administration schedule relative to existing topical and oral therapies, make once‐weekly oral fluconazole a valuable alternative to the treatment of tinea corporis/cruris.