Old World cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment response varies depending on parasite species, geographical location and development of secondary infection

Table 2 Correlation between location of CL lesions and patient response to drug treatment. Data for 96 patients with L. major or L. tropica infections confirmed by culture or PCR-RFLP

Lesion location	% Patients responding to drug treatment (healing)
Lesion location	1st line (Azoles/fusidic acid)	2nd line (SSG) 1st course	2nd line (SSG) 2nd course	Unresponsive cases^a	P-value^b
Head, neck or hand	41 (n = 13)	37 (n = 12)	5 (n = 2)	16 (n = 15)	0.0192 (n = 32)
Arms	32 (n = 6)	0 (n = 0)	21 (n = 4)	47 (n = 9)	0.2 (n = 19)
Trunk, legs or feet	32 (n = 6)	63 (n = 12)	0 (n = 0)	5^c (n = 1)	0.02 (n = 19)
Face, nose or ear	10 (n = 1)	20^d (n = 2)	20 (n = 2)	50^e (n = 5)	0.5 (n = 10)
Disseminated (whole body)	13 (n = 2)	31 (n = 5)	13 (n = 2)	43^f (n = 7)	0.7 (n = 16)

^a85% of patients that did not respond to drug treatment were infected with L. tropica
^bFisher’s exact test
^cUlcerated L. tropica cases with secondary infection
^dAll cases were L. major patients with apparent secondary infections
^eCases with satellite lesions
^fCases with multiple lesions receiving more than two courses of stibogluconate (SSG)

ISSN: 1756-3305