Antibiotic therapy in early erythema migrans disease and related disorders

Between December 1978 and July 1985, we used various antibiotics for the treatment of 97 adult patients with early erythema migrans disease (EMD). Six patients with borrelial lymphocytoma (BL) and 20 with acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans (ACA) were treated similarly. Follow-up was for a median of 20, 14, and 12 months, respectively. The erythema migrans and all associated symptoms resolved within a median of 3 weeks (0.5-18.4), BL within 7 weeks (4-16), and ACA partly or completely within several months. A Jarisch-Herxheimer (-like) reaction was observed in 8 patients with EMD. Fourteen patients with EMD and one with ACA developed an exacerbation of symptoms or new manifestations between the 2nd and 20th day, and 28 patients with EMD and one with ACA continued to have or acquired various symptoms greater than or equal to 3 weeks after initiation of therapy. Arthralgia, neurologic and constitutional symptoms, and in one instance a slight pulmonary interstitial edema developed in EMD. More severe initial illness was a risk factor for the development of later symptoms in EMD. Retreatment was more often necessary in ACA than in EMD. A patient with ACA had a recurrence after 5 1/2 years. IgG antibody titers rose at least fourfold in 5 patients with ACA and in 1 with EMD despite therapy. We tentatively recommend minocycline or high doses of parenteral penicillin for the treatment of these disorders.