Efficacy of cryotherapy and intralesional pentostam in treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Forty-two CL patients with 60 lesions were treated with cryotherapy using liquid nitrogen twice for two months. Another group of fifty-five CL patients. With 73 lesions were treated with intralesional pentostam with pentostam, 67 of 73 lesions (92%) and with cryotherapy 47 of 60 lesions (78%) healed or markedly improved at the end of three months follow-up. This study shows that intralesional pentostam injection was effective than cryotherapy. However, both lines of treatment were well tolerated by the patients. They showed no severe side effects and no significant changes in laboratory values. It is suggested that cryotherapy is an alternative to intralesional pentostam injection.