Comparison of Efficacy of Intercessional Injection of Glucantime and Cryotherapy with Intralesional Injection in the Treatment of Zoonotic Cutaneous leishmaniasis:a Randomized Clinical Trial

This study was done to compare the efficacy of interlesional injection of Glucantime method and cryotherapy with interlesional injection in treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Qom province. In this randomized controlled trial patients were randomly allocated in the two arms of the study: one receiving interalesional Glucantime injection weekly and the other receiving biweekly cryothrapy with intralesional injections of Glucantime. At first، the lesion size and induration of lesions were recorded after 7 and 12 weeks، and treatment of lesions was monitored. Healing was defined as complete re-epithelialisation and disappearance of induration. Out of a total of 197 CL patientsm 112 cases with L. major were studied. 54 cases with 116 lesions received intralesional Glucantime injection and 58 patients with 115 lesions received cryothrapy with intralesional injections of Glucantime. At 7th week after the initiation of the treatment، complete healing was observed in56 out of 116 lesions (48. 1%) in the group which received weekly intralesional IG injection and 83 out of 115 lesions (72. 2%) in the group which received biweekly GI with IG&cryothrapy. At 12th week after the initiation of the treatment، complete healing was observed in 105 out of 116 lesions (91%) in the group which received weekly intralesional IG injection and 115 out of 115 lesions (%100) in the group which received biweekly GI with IG & cryothrapy. By the end of 7th week، RR (0. 95CI) amounted to 1. 86 (1. 1 – 3. 15) and at the end of 12th week they tapped to 3. 4 (2. 23- 2. 27) which are statistically significant (P<0. 02). The significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of complete healing rate (P<0. 05). Based on the findings، cryothrapy with biweekly intralesional injections of Glucantime was more effective compared with weekly intercessional Glucantime injection and reduced the period of treatment.