Albendazole vs praziquantel for therapy for neurocysticercosis. A controlled trial.

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.