Comparison of low dose oral Methotrexate vs Systemic Corticosteroids for treatment of Oral Lichen Planus
Tooba Saeed, Saadia Firdous, Shahzad Iqbal Malik, Muhammad Aamir, Yasir Ishaq, Nabeela Riaz
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ABSTRACT
Background: Oral Lichen Planus (OLP) is a relatively common chronic inflammatory
mucocutaneous disorder. WHO considers OLP a premalignant lesion. This makes
management of OLP important to avoid its malignant transformation.
Corticosteroids are considered as the first-line of treatment. Different other
treatment modalities are also in use for OLP. But there is no statistically
significant data available for a particular therapy. The recent evidences
suggest methotrexate may effectively be used in low dose in the treatment of
OLP.
Aim: To compare the frequency of complete resolution of mucosal lesions of
oral lichen planus with low dose oral methotrexate versus systemic
corticosteroids.
Methods: It was a randomized control trial conducted at Oral & Maxillofacial
Surgery Department, King Edward Medical University/Mayo Hospital Lahore in six
months. A sample of 60 patients was divided into two sub groups namely Group -A
(methotrexate) and Group - B (corticosteroid) using lottery method. More than
75% resolution of mucosal lesions clinically was considered as complete
resolution at the end of 8th week.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 44.55±12.38 years. On 8th week,
frequency of complete resolution of mucosal lesions was 73.3% in Group A and
60% in Group B with an insignificant difference (p-value<0.05).
Conclusion: Methotrexate group A showed more complete resolution of mucosal
lesions than corticosteroid group B with insignificant statistical difference.
Keywords: Oral Lichen Planus, Mucosal lesions, Malignant
transformation, Methotrexate, Corticosteroids