Systemic Meglumine Antimoniate in Acute Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: Children versus Adults

Some studies showed that children have a lower response to systemic use of pentavalent antimoniate than adults. We aimed to evaluate the response rate to Glucantime therapy in children and compare it with adults. One hundred and twelve patients with acute cutaneous leishmaniais (ACL) were divided into two equal groups of adults (> 15 yrs) and children 15 yrs). They received meglumine antimoniate; 20 mg/kg/day for 20 days, their improvement rate was evaluated 20 and 45 days after treatment. Perprotocol analysis showed a significantly lower response in the children group 20 and 45 days after initiation of the treatment (P = 0.0001, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.190 [0.079-0.456]/P = 0.0051, 95% Cl = 0.317 [0.140-0.717], respectively). Moreover, after intention-to-treat analysis, the same results were seen in the younger group 20 and 45 days after treatment (P = 0.0003,95% Cl = 0.228 [0.098-0.528]/P = 0.0132, 95% Cl = 0.382 [0.177-0.825], respectively). According to our results, systemic Glucantime has lower efficacy in treating ACL in children than adults.