Effect of systemic erythromycin stearate on the inflammatory lesions and skin surface fatty acids in acne vulgaris.

In a 6-week and double-blind study the efficacy of systemic administered erythromycin stearate and doxycycline was compared in 56 patients with facial acne vulgaris. With both antibiotics a statistically significant improvement was demonstrated without any difference between the two groups. No patient had to withdraw therapy due to side-effects. Another part of this investigation correlates the degree of inflammation in acne vulgaris with the fatty acid level in human skin surface lipids before and after systemic erythromycin stearate therapy. This antibiotic reduced the amount of fatty acids 25--50% after a month of medication. The reduction was correlated with a definite clinical improvement in 14 of the 17 patients.