title: Efficacy of combined treatment with oral and topical acyclovir in first episode genital herpes.
abstract: Fifty patients presenting with first episode genital herpes were randomly allocated to seven day treatment with either oral acyclovir plus 5% acyclovir cream or oral acyclovir plus matching placebo cream. Combined treatment with oral and topical acyclovir was associated with a shorter duration of itching in women alone (p = 0.04) but gave no clinical relief of other symptoms, the time to healing of lesions, or the subsequent recurrence rate. Concomitant topical treatment with 5% acyclovir cream confers no advantages on patients who receive oral acyclovir.
mesh_terms: D000212:Acyclovir / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000284:Administration, Oral; D000287:Administration, Topical; D000293:Adolescent; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006558:Herpes Genitalis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation
chemical_list: D000212:Acyclovir