A comparison of the effects of topical injection of glucantime plus glycolic acid 70% and salicylic acid 20% with topical injection of glucantime alone in the treatment of acute cutaneous leishmaniasis

Background: Despite the increasing developments in treatment of skin diseases, leishmaniasis is still considered as one of the major health problems. Despite the spontaneously improving of the disease, its scars can highly create emotional and social problems for the patients. In this study, the effect of combination therapy of intralesional glucantime plus glycolic acid 70% and salicylic 20% was compared with intralesional glucantime alone in reducing scars of this disease Methods: 75 patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis, which had 2 lesions at the same anatomical location, participated in the study (150 lesions).75 lesions were treated with combination therapy and 75 with intralesional glucantime alone. For each patient a questionnaire was filled. All the data were analyzed using SPSS software. Findings: After 8 weeks of treatment, 37.3% of lesions cured completely with intralesional glucantime and 42.7% with combination therapy. There was no statistically significant difference between the improvements among the two groups (P>0.05) Conclusion: Intralesional glucantime plus glycolic acid 70% and salicylic 20% was not more effective in cutaneous leishmaniasis compared to intralesional glucantime alone and did not reduce the mean time of improvement