April - Athlete’s foot – Treatment and Care

Athlete’s foot – Treatment and Care

Athlete’s foot is a common fungal infection that affects the feet. You can usually treat it with creams, sprays or powders from a pharmacy, but it can keep coming back. Athlete´s foot is unlikely to get better on its own.

Non pharmacologic treatment includes hygienic measures like keep feet clean and dry, wear open shoes with porous soles to allow feet to dry, use rubber shower sandals when walking at public facilities, change shoes and socks daily, never share footwear, towels, or clothing and use separate towel to dry affected area or dry it last.

Pharmacologic treatment includes ointments, creams, powders, aerosols or solutions.

 

Tolfanate 1% is an antifungal approved for prevention and treament of athlete's foot. It is well tolerated and primarily used in Chronic Papulosquamous type.

 

Imidazoles like Clotrimazole 1% and Miconazole 2% are antifungals that inhibit the biosynthesis of ergosterol and other sterols and damage fungal cell wall membrane.

Imidazoles must be applied BID (twice a day) for 4 weeks.

N.b.: Mild skin irritation may occur.

 

Allylamines like Terbinafine 1% and Butenafine 1% are squalene epoxidase inhibitors and do treat athlete's foot in 1 week (best result if applied BID x 1 week).

 

Salts of aluminium were historically used for tinea pedis. Domeboro or Burow's solution show astringent properties and antibacterial activity at concentrations higher than 20%.

They do not cure athlete's foot entirely but are useful when combined with topical antifungal drugs especially for acute inflammatory type.

Solutions shall be diluted with 10-40 parts of water and feet soaked for 20 minutes up to TID (three times daily) during 1 week.

N.b.: This method might cause tissue irritation if deep fissures are present.

 

Lotus Pharmacy Educational Website

 

 

April 2019

Sara Silva