Effect of Salvia Officinalis vaginal cream and clotrimazole vaginal cream on the Improvement of clinical signs of candida vaginitis in diabetic women

Vaginitis is the most common problem of gynecological diseases. Among the types of vaginitis, Candida is the second most common cause of vaginitis in women. Diabetes is known to be a leading cause of vaginal fungal disease. Conventional treatment of Candida infection is clotrimazole vaginal cream. But this drug has the side effects including redness, burning, vaginal irritation and rash. Antifungal and hypoglycemic effects of Salvia Officinalis extract have been demonstrated in laboratory and clinical studies. This study was performed with aim to compare the effect of Salvia Officinalis vaginal cream with clotrimazole vaginal cream on treatment of Candida vaginitis in diabetic women.

This randomized clinical trial study was performed on 68 patients with vaginal candidiasis in Mashhad in 2018-2019. 34 patients were placed in Salvia Officinalis and 34 in clotrimazole group. Vulvovaginal candidiasis was diagnosed by clinical symptoms and wet test, and culture in Sabrouraud dextrose agar. Vaginal Salvia officinalis cream and the Vaginal Cream Clotrimazole were administered one applicator every night for 7 nights. Follow-up was done 1 ± 7 days later. Data collection was done by the checklist of individual information and recording the signs and observations. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 21), and independent t-test, Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, McNemar and Wilcoxon tests. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

There was statistically significant difference in Salvia Officinalis discharge in the salvia group compared to clotrimazole group (p <0.001). Whereas the other improving symptoms such as irritation of the vulva (P = 0.0317), itching (P = 0.093), burning (P = 0.383), post-couital pain (P = 0.067) were not significantly different between two groups.

Both Salvia Officinalis and clotrimazole cream improved clinical symptoms of Vulvovaginal candidiasis, and treatment effects of these two drugs are similar.