[Pharmacoeconomic aspects of the treatment of onychomycosis].

The clinical management of severe onychomycosis is known to be a long and difficult task. When deciding which treatment to prescribe to our patients we may be tempted to use the efficacy rate as the only objective measurement or on the other hand to assess treatment costs only by looking at the drug acquisition cost. The role of pharmacoeconomics is to provide a method that evaluates outcomes and costs at the same time; it is an aid to better decision making. Cost effectiveness studies take into account the efficacy of each treatment regimen balanced against the global cost of treatment. So we can assess the number of patients cured for a given health care budget. Two recent studies presenting the results of a combination therapy of an antifungal therapy and antifungal lacquer give us the opportunity to illustrate some pharmacoeconomic principals.