Critical appraisal of reports on the treatment of perioral dermatitis.

BACKGROUND

Presently, problems exist with the rationale of oral therapy and the nature and indication of topical and accompanying treatment of perioral dermatitis.

OBJECTIVE

Providing the basis to overcome these problems by a quality evaluation of treatment reports and assessment of the consistency of treatment experience.

METHODS

Sources were Medline (1964-2004), Embase (1966-2004), the Cochrane Central (1971-2004) and 526 references of 3 textbooks, 2 recent reviews and 30 papers on perioral dermatitis. Thirty English and German articles were selected. These studies were evaluated according to principles of evidence-based medicine and related criteria. Evaluation of 28 papers was carried out by the authors and of our own 2 papers by 2 other reviewers. Consistency of results was qualitatively assessed by the authors.

RESULTS

There were only 2 therapeutic trials of medium-range quality. The other studies were of low quality. Consistency was noted concerning treatment with oral tetracycline (with 1 exception), discontinuation of topical corticosteroids and cosmetics and, to a lesser extent, regarding no therapy. There was inconsistency in respect to topical therapy.

CONCLUSION

The presented data help to interpret and conduct studies on the treatment of perioral dermatitis.