OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and tolerability of oral metronidazole and tinidazole in patients with bacterial vaginosis (BV) using Amsel's criteria.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a randomized double-blind study, conducted by the Departments of Pharmacology and Gynecology of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Patients diagnosed with BV received either tablet metronidazole 500 mg twice daily for 5 days or tablet tinidazole 500 mg once daily + one placebo for 5 days and instructed to come for follow-up at the 1 week and 4 week. They were categorized as cured, partially cured, and not cured based on Amsel's criteria at the end of the study and compared between two groups using Chi-square test.
RESULTS: A total 120 women were enrolled in the study, of which 114 completed the study. The treatment arms were comparable. The cure rate with low-dose tinidazole was significantly more compared to metronidazole at 4 week ( = 0.0013), but not at 1 week ( = 0.242). The adverse drug reactions were less with tinidazole compared to metronidazole.
CONCLUSION: Tinidazole at lower dose offers a better efficacy than metronidazole in long-term cure rates and in preventing relapses with better side effect profile.
