Title

Treatment with acyclovir five times daily may reduce the duration of primary herpetic oral lesions

Clinical Question

In children experiencing primary herpetic gingivostomatitis, does treatment with acyclovir, compared to no treatment, reduce the duration of oral lesions?

Clinical Bottom Line

Treatment with acyclovir 5 times daily could reduce the duration of primary herpetic oral lesions. (See Comments on the CAT below)

Best Evidence

PubMed ID	Author / Year	Patient Group	Study type (level of evidence)
18843726	Nasser/2008	Children and young adults < 25 years of age with a diagnosis of primary herpetic gingivostomatitis	Systematic review
Key results	Two randomized controlled trials were included in this systematic review. One provided weak evidence that acyclovir is an effective treatment for primary herpetic gingivostomatitis. The results showed reduction in the number of individuals with oral lesions (risk ratio (RR) 0.10 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02 to 0.38)), new extraoral lesions (RR 0.04 (95% CI 0.00 to 0.65)), difficulty in eating (RR 0.14 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.58)), and drinking difficulties (RR 0.11 (95% CI 0.01 to 0.83)) after 8 days of treatment.

Evidence Search

“Acyclovir”;[Mesh] AND &;”Stomatitis, Herpetic;[Mesh] AND Child;[Mesh]

Comments on
The Evidence

none

Applicability

Children experiencing primary herpetic gingivostomatitis

Specialty

(General Dentistry)

Keywords

Acyclovir, child, herpetic stomatitis, oral lesions, treatment

ID#

491

Date of submission

01/07/2010

E-mail

riggsc@livemail.uthscsa.edu

Author

Christi Wengler

Co-author(s)

Chad Riggs

Co-author(s) e-mail

Faculty mentor

Lina M. Cardenas, DDS

Faculty mentor e-mail

Basic Science Rationale
(Mechanisms that may account for and/or explain the clinical question, i.e. is the answer to the clinical question consistent with basic biological, physical and/or behavioral science principles, laws and research?)

None available

Comments and Evidence-Based Updates on the CAT
(FOR PRACTICING DENTISTS', FACULTY, RESIDENTS and/or STUDENTS COMMENTS ON PUBLISHED CATs)

by Leslie Jean (San Antonio, TX) on 04/09/2012
After performing a PubMed search on this topic on April 9, 2012, it has been found that the article presented in this CAT is still the most recent and highest level of evidence available.