Treatment of herpes simplex keratitis: comparison of acyclovir and vidarabine.

At three university centres 66 patients presenting with herpetic dendritic or geographic ulcers participated in a double-blind comparative study of 3% acyclovir and 3% vidarabine ointment. There was healing in 31 (97%) of the 32 patients treated with acyclovir, in a mean time of 6.3 days, and in 30 (88%) of the 34 treated with vidarabine, in a mean time of 7.1 days. The two medications were statistically equally effective, no difference being demonstrated in the healing rate, in the frequency of punctate epithelial keratitis or stromal keratitis, or in the final visual acuity.