Follow up of patients of acne vulgaris treated with tetracyclines.

Tetracyclines have been used extensively for the management of moderately severe to severe acne. In this study we studied the effect of withdrawal of tetracycline and minocycline on the course of acne. Ninety seven clinically controlled patients of acne vulgaris who had earlier taken tetracycline (1G daily) or minocycline (100 mg daily) were followed up at 4 weekly intervals for a period of 12 weeks after stopping all anti-acne therapy. At each visit the acne lesion score (ALS) was calculated. It was found that in the group of 48 patients who had previously received tetracyclines, 25% continued to improve at 12 weeks while 16.7% had relapsed. In the group of 49 patients who had earlier taken minocycline, 69.4% continued to improve and none had relapsed at 12 weeks. Similarly, when the mean acne lesion score of the 2 groups was compared at 12 weeks, it was found that response persisted in the group of acne patients who had been treated previously with minocycline and not in the group treated with tetracyclines.