Long-term Aspect of Treatment with Metronidazole (flagyl) in Trichomonal Vaginitis.

The patients were seen at the V.D. Clinic of the Central Middlesex Hospital. Prostitutes and women known to be very promiscuous were excluded from the trial as it was thought that the re-infection rate might make the interpretation of results difficult. Flagyl (200 mg. three times daily for 10 days) and dummy tablets were dispensed in identical packets which were randomized and numbered. The key to the numbers was kept by the hospital pharmacist until the end of the trial 3 months later. In cases of treatment failure, the patient was given a 10-day course of Flagyl; this ensured that all who failed to respond had at least one course of the drug. In this controlled part of the trial, there were 67 women, 10 of whom defaulted after their first attendance; of the remaining 57 patients, 28 had received Flagyl and 29 a course of dummy tablets. It was of interest to find that of the ten early defaulters, seven had received dummy tablets, which suggests in the light of the trial results that early defaulting does not necessarily indicate successful treatment. Table I gives the results of the controlled trial; there were three (10 * 3 per cent.) failures after Flagyl against 27 (93-1 per cent.) failures in the controls. The results of re-treating the failures are shown in TABLE I