Abstract

Onychomycosis is a fungal infection of the nails, more often toenails, and can be caused not only by dermatophytes but also by certain yeasts and non-dermatophytic mold. For the treatment of toenail onychomycosis, both terbinafine (continuous) and itraconazole (pulse) therapies are effective, safe, and associated with high compliance. Despite of high cure rates, some 20% of patients with onychomycosis still fail to benefit from therapy. In many of these cases, surgery may be needed to precede drug therapy. If extra therapy is required, one suggestion is that 4 weeks of terbinafine or an extra pulse of itraconazole are given between months 6 and 9 from the start of therapy. For prophylaxis, topical application of antifungal creams would be expected to be effective in preventing re-infection in patient with onychomycosis.

Keywords

Onychomycosis Treatment Prophylaxis

KJMM 2001 September;6(3):140-142(3). Epub 2016 February 22
Copyright © 2001 by Korean Journal of Medical Mycology

Language

Korean/English

Author

Moo Kyu Suh; Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Kyongju, Korea

Corresponding

Moo Kyu Suh, Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Kyongju, Korea. Tel: (054) 770-8269, Fax: (054) 773-1581, e-mail: mksuhmd@hanmail.net

Publication history

Acknowledgements

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Moo Kyu Suh

Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Kyongju, Korea

Since epub date 2016 February 22