A comparison of topical azelaic acid 20% cream and topical metronidazole 0.75% cream in the treatment of patients with papulopustular rosacea

Rosacea: an update on therapeutic options

“…Metronidazole has been compared with azelaic acid for therapeutic efficacy in rosacea and has been found to be as effective as the latter in clinical studies. 13,14 However, the overall effect of azelaic acid was found to be superior in these clinical trials.…”

Archives Features

“…In addition, there was a greater reduction in overall facial erythema in the azelaic acid group (P=.02). The studies by Maddin 17 and Elewski et al 16 demonstrated no significant improvement in telangiectasia severity for the azelaic acid or the metronidazole group (Table 4). Although patients experienced minor local skin irritation with use of azelaic acid compared with metronidazole, local tolerability was high.…”

“…Of those trials, 2 studies compared topical azelaic acid with topical metronidazole and were therefore excluded from the review. 16,17 Two other publications were duplicate studies (Hebert 18 and Thiboutot et al 19 ). The 5 remaining randomized controlled trials were included for systematic analysis ( Table 4).…”

“…In 1999, Maddin 17 conducted a single-center, randomized, doubleblind study comparing topical 20% azelaic acid cream and topical 0.75% metronidazole cream. Both treatment groups experienced significant decreases in inflammatory lesion counts (mean number of lesions, 11.30 at baseline vs 2.43 after treatment for azelaic acid and 11.40 vs 3.49 for metronidazole; P = .43), although no statistically significant difference was observed between the 2 treatment groups.…”

Dreimonatige Anwendungsbeobachtung mit Azelainsäure 15 % in Hydrogel (Skinoren® 15 % Gel) bei Patienten mit papulopustulöser Rosazea

“…[7]. Auch die 20 %−ige Creme−Formulierung von AzS hat sich in klinischen Stu− dien in der Behandlung der Rosazea als gut wirksam und ver− träglich erwiesen [3,13], ist aber aus patentrechtlichen Gründen gegenwärtig nicht zur Rosazeatherapie zugelassen.…”