Comparing the Effect of Phenytoin Syrup and Triamcinolone Acetonide Ointment on Aphthous Ulcers in Patients with Behcet’s Syndrome

BACKGROUND Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) appears to be the most common type of oral ulcers. The lesion is usually self limited but its painful presentation results in some difficulties. Therefore, an efficient therapeutic strategy is required and currently existing therapies seem to be inadequate because of its unclear etiology. Here the therapeutic effect of triamcinolone acetonide ointment as a relatively expensive medication has been compared with phenytoin syrup on aphthous ulcers in patients with Behcet's syndrome. METHODS Thirty out of 60 our patients with Behcet's syndrome were randomly treated by phenytoin syrup and the remaining were advised to use 0.1% triamcinolone acetonide ointment. After a week, they were visited again to determine the status of aphthous ulcers. RESULT Positive response in the triamcinolone acetonide group and phenytoin group was 86.7% and 53.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION The effectiveness of triamcinolone acetonide ointment was more than phenytoin on aphthous ulcers in patients with Behcet's syndrome.