Bacterial vaginosis: Comparison of various therapeutic protocols

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To compare different treatment protocols for bacterial vaginosis and to find out the most effective one. STUDY DESIGN: The study included 79 women who attended our clinic between February 1996 and May 1996 with the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis. The agents used were oral metronidazole 2X500 mg/day (16 patients, group I), oral metronidazole 2X500 mg/day and 2X1/day 500 mg metronidazole and 100 mg miconazole nitrate containing intravaginal topical agent (18 patients, group II), oral clindamycin 2X300 mg/day (15 patients, group III), oral ciproflaxacin 2X500 mg/day (17 patients, group IV), and oral placebo 2X1/day (11 patients, group V). The relief of the complaints and normalization of pelvic examination findings were accepted as clinical cure, and the normalization of microbiological criteria was accepted as diagnostic cure. The results were evaluated with chi square test. RESULTS: The clinical and diagnostic cure rates were 62.5 and 68.8%, 72.2 and 77.8%, 50 and 28.6%, 25 and 31.3% and 0 and 0% in groups I to V, respectively. The clinical cure rate in group I was significantly higher than the group V (p<0.05). The clinical cure rate in group II was significantly higher than the fourth and fifth groups. In the first and second groups, the diagnostic cure rates were significantly higher than the third (p<0.05), fourth (p<0.05) and fifth (p<0.05) groups. CONCLUSION: The higher cure rate in group II patients suggests that the addition of an antianaerobic intravaginal agent has better curative effect on bacterial vaginosis.