Patient acceptability of a new fragrance-free sulfacetamide/sulfur cleanser

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the patient acceptability of a 10% sodium sulfacetamide and 5% sulfur cleanser in patients with mild-to-severe rosacea. This was a single-center, open-label, 4-week study involving 34 enrolled patients (31 of whom completed all visits). All patients were prescribed (metronidazole gel 0.75%) to be used twice daily after washing with the sulfacetamide/sulfur cleanser. The investigator’s assessment of product tolerability involved a 4-point scale to evaluate dryness, scaling, pruritis, and stinging/burning. Patients were asked to assess various skin sensations after product use (eg, “feels soft/smooth‘) on a 6-point scale. In addition, the investigators performed an inflammatory lesion count and assessed erythema severity and global rosacea severity. Investigator assessment of product tolerability showed that the average score for each potential adverse effect decreased over the course of the study. Patient evaluation demonstrated that the average score for each subjective assessment decreased from or remained similar to baseline at the week 4 visit. There was a numerical trend toward improvement in disease-state evaluations (lesion counts, erythema severity score, and global rosacea severity score) over the course of the study.