Efficacy of Rebamipide and Levamisole in the Treatment of Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Ulcer - A Comparative Study

Abstract

Context (Background): Recurrent aphthous stomatitis is an inflammatory condition of unknown aetiology characterized by painful recurrent, single or multiple ulcerations of the oral mucosa. Aims: To compare the efficacy of rebamipide, a gastroprotective agent and levamisole, an immunomodulating agent in the treatment of recurrent aphthous stomatitis. Materials and Methods: Hundred patients diagnosed with recurrent aphthous stomatitis were enrolled in the study. Fifty patients were assigned randomly to each of the two treatment groups. After the clinical diagnosis and ulcer measurement, a subjective evaluation of symptoms was done for each subject. Both the drugs were given orally at specified intervals. Ulcer measurements and subjective evaluations were made at day one. Statistical Analysis: Analysis was done using various test like Mann Whitney and t-test. Results and Conclusion: The overall results showed mean number of episodes whose values were not statistically significant (p=0.43), neither were the mean number of ulcers (p=0.75), or values for mean size of ulcers (p=0.91). However, the overall results suggested that efficacy of rebamipide is almost same as that of the efficacy of previously proved drug levamisole. The current study with a three months follow up, including patients with high scores of pain, aphthae count, ulcer size and frequency of occurrence showed better results in both the study groups. However, rebamipide is suggested to be well tolerated and may therefore be useful in the treatment and prevention of frequently recurrent aphthous ulcers not restricted to Behcet’s disease.

Keywords

• aphthous ulcer
• behcet’s disease
• levamisole
• oral ulcer
• rebamipide