Effect and tolerability of Levamisole in the management of aphthous ulcers ? A cross sectional study

Background: Aphthous ulcer is very common in dental and medical practice. Mouth ulcer causes significant difficulty in eating, drinking and talking. Treatment is primarily aimed by means of pain relief and the promotion of healing to reduce the duration of the disease. To this point we have evaluated the effectiveness of levamisole in the treatment of Aphthous ulcer. Material and methods: 50 patients suffering from recurrent aphthous ulcers were included in this double blind evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of levamisole for the period of 4 months. In group-A; there were 25 patients with mean age of 28 years, were administered levamisole in a dosage 150 mg once daily for three consecutive days at the start of lesions. In group-B; 25 patients with mean age of 28 years, were given placebo in the same schedule. Each patient’s response to treatment was determined by number of lesions, duration, patients self evaluation of pain through Visual Analogue Scale. At the end of every month patients were evaluated. Data was analyzed statistically by paired t ? test. Results: In Group-A levamisole treated patients; the score of pain got reduced from severe pain to moderate pain, score with significant p value (P - 0.002) and percentage of reduction (18.89). Group-B placebo given patients were compared to group-A levamisole treated patients showed in significant p value (P -0.66) and percentage reduction (7.18) in number of lesions. Conclusion: Patients treated with levamisole showed vital decrease in number of lesions, duration and degree of pain, when compared to placebo treated patients. Therefore our study reconfirms the favorable role of levamisole in aphthous ulcer with acceptable side effects.