A comparative review of the efficacy and tolerability of retinoid-containing combination regimens for the treatment of acne vulgaris.

Many physicians regularly prescribe combination therapy involving a retinoid for their acne patients. The most common retinoid-containing regimens include either oral antibiotics or topical benzoyl peroxide and antibiotic products. A fair number of studies have been conducted to evaluate the efficacy of these combination therapies, but there is a lack of comparative studies examining different regimens head-to-head. Also, many of the noncomparative studies have very similar trial designs. A review of these studies was conducted in order to organize the available data side by side from the different regimens. Although not derived from comparative studies, this presentation of data is expected to provide dermatologists with valuable information from which they can easily make their own comparisons among similarly designed trials.