Intralesional therapy of cutaneous leishmaniasis with sodium stibogluconate antimony

One hundred and thirty lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis in 60 patients were treated with intralesional injections of Pentostam and 30 lesions were left untreated as controls. The injections were given at 8-day intervals and the patients followed-up for 42 days. One hundred and four lesions (80%) needed one injection only, 20 (15.4%) needed two and six (4.6%) needed three injections. One hundred and twenty three of the treated lesions (94.6%) showed a good clinical response with complete healing or marked improvement within the follow-up period. None of the control lesions showed marked improvement or complete healing. Scarring was minimal or absent following healing of treated lesions. The only side-effect was some localized pain following the injection. We recommend intralesional Pentostam as a safe and effective method of treating acute cutaneous leishmaniasis.