Comparative evaluation of retinoic acid, benzoyl peroxide and erythromycin lotion in acne vulgarils

Ninety three patients suffering from acne vulgaris were treated with 0.05% retinoic acid (23 patients), 10% benzyoyl peroxide (24 patients), 2% erythromycin lotin (25 patients) and 50% glycerine in methylated spirit (21 patients) used as a control, for a period of 6 weeks. The patients were evaluated at 2 weeks and 6 weeks by spot counting of the lesions and diagrammatic representations. Good to excellent results were obtained in 69.6% of patients of erythromycin lotion. Retinoic acid was more effective in reducing noninflammatory lesions (75.2%) whereas inflammatory lesions showed better response (73.6%) with erythromycin lotion and benzoyl peroxide was almost equally effective in both types of lesions.