title: Permethrin 5% dermal cream: a new treatment for scabies.
abstract: Permethrin 5% dermal cream (Burroughs Wellcome Co.) was compared in an investigator-blinded, randomized study against lindane 1% lotion (Kwell) for the treatment of microscopically confirmed scabies. Eleven of twenty-three patients treated with permethrin cream were cured in 2 weeks (48%). Only two patients had scabies 1 month following a single treatment with this product, giving a cure rate of 91%. One of these two patients was considered to have a reinfestation. Only three of twenty-three (13%) patients treated with 1% lindane lotion (Kwell) were free of scabies 2 weeks after a single treatment and fifteen of twenty-three (65%) were cured at 1 month. The unusually high percentage of treatment failures (35%) following lindane therapy may have been related to extensive use of this agent for head lice and scabies in this village during the preceding 5 years. The higher cure rate at 1 month seen with permethrin cream was significant (p less than 0.025). Permethrin 5% dermal cream offers a new, cosmetically elegant alternative to lindane therapy and was effective in a community in which lindane demonstrated an unacceptable level of treatment failures.
mesh_terms: D000287:Administration, Topical; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005260:Female; D001556:Hexachlorocyclohexane / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D026023:Permethrin; D011722:Pyrethrins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012532:Scabies / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D011722:Pyrethrins; D026023:Permethrin; D001556:Hexachlorocyclohexane