Tackling Ear Fungus: A Comparative Analysis of Betadine and Clotrimazole in Otomycosis Management

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To compare efficacy of Betadine and Clotrimazole in treatment of otomycosis Study Design: Randomized Clinical Trial Place & duration of the study : “Department of ENT, Head and Neck Surgery, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad” from 04 February 2022 to 03 July 2023. METHODOLOGY: An approved letter was taken from Ethics Committee prior to starting this study. Patients were filtered from OPD of ENT Department, PIMS, Islamabad. Informed consent was taken from all patients prior to any intervention as a part of ethical concern. Patients were informed about their inclusion in the study, the procedure they underwent, its benefits and risks involved. In the study, patients were divided into the two groups, Group A and Group B. Group A was comprised of patients who were treated with standard antifungal drug i.e. Clotrimazole while Group B was given Betadine for the treatment of Otomycosis. The collected data was analyzed by using the SPSS 23 version. RESULTS: We enrolled 110 patients in current study with mean age of patients treated with betadine was 46.45±13.59 years and those treated with clotrimazole was 45.36±12.88 years. We found complete response rate in betadine and clotrimazole treated patients at Day 4 was (14.5% vs 9.1%, p=0.555), at Day 10 was (56.4% vs 45.5%, p=0.417) and at Day 20 was (92.7% vs 74.5%, p=0.036). Hence the response of betadine was better than clotrimazole in the treatment of otomycosis. CONCLUSION: We concluded that efficacy of betadine is better than clotrimazole in treatment of otomycosis. Betadine is effective in the treatment of Otomycosis as compared to Clotrimazole.