Tazarotene Gel vs. Calcipotriol Ointment in Psoriasis
Title: Comparison of tazarotene 0.1% gel plus
petrolatum once daily versus calcipotriol 0.005% ointment twice
daily in the treatment of plaque psoriasis.
Authors: Tzung TY, et al.
Publication: Acta Derm Venereol. 2005;85(3):236-9.
The authors wanted to compare the effectiveness of psoriasis
treatment using tazarotene and calcipotriol.
They enrolled 19 patients with plaque psoriasis. These patients
were each given once-daily tazarotene 0.1% gel plus petrolatum
(petroleum jelly) and twice-daily calcipotriol 0.005% ointment.
Each patient was told to treat some lesion with the tazarotene
and others with calcipotriol for 12 weeks. In the study, a total
of 44 lesion pairs were compared.
The results:
| Week 2 to 8 |
Calcipotriol has significantly greater effect
in reducing erythema (redness of the skin) than tazarotene-petrolatum. |
| |
|
| Week 12 (end of treatment) |
Same efficacy of tazarotene-petrolatum and calcipotriol |
| |
|
| Week 16 (4 weeks after end of treatment) |
Tazarotene-petrolatum had better effect in psoriasis maintenance. |
Skin irritation was found only in the tazarotene-petrolatum treatment.
The authors concluded that the once-daily tazarotene 0.1% plus
petroleum jelly was as effective as the twice-daily calcipotriol
0.005% ointment for treating psoriasis plaques, but had better
maintenance effect after the treatment period was over.
