Albendazole vs praziquantel for therapy for neurocysticercosis. A controlled trial
J. Sotelo, F. Escobedo and P. Penagos
Research Division, Instituto Nacional de Neurologia y Neurocirugia, Mexico City.
Praziquantel and albendazole have been recently described as effective
drugs for treating cysticercosis of the brain. In this study, effectiveness
of each drug for therapy for parenchymal brain cysticercosis was compared.
Twenty patients were treated either with albendazole or with praziquantel;
in addition, five patients were taken as controls and treated only with
symptomatic drugs. Three months after therapy, results showed that both
drugs, albendazole and praziquantel, were highly effective, as seen by the
disappearance of cystic lesions in computed tomographic scans. All lesions
in control patients remained unchanged. Albendazole, when compared with
praziquantel, showed a 76% vs 73% disappearance of lesions, respectively.
It was concluded that both drugs have similar equivalent efficacy and
greatly improve the therapeutics of cysticercosis.
