New Concept in Toenail Fungus Topical Treatments
Study of new concept in topical treatment for toenail fungus was published by sage publications. 
This study presents alternative treatments for patients concerned about the high cost of currently available oral medicine for nail fungus and fearful of side effects. In this study, 154 patients were studied for 1 year with mild, moderate, and severe nail fungal disease. Previously, surgical and chemical avulsion has been combined with topical and oral medicines, but a 100% cure of nail fungus is still not possible. In this study, combination of periodic debridement with a topical solution containing a cyanoacrylate base with undecylenic acid and hydroquinone is used as nail fungus remedies.
The combination reported in this study contains cyanoacrylates that have a unique property of binding to keratin. Keratin is the primary food of dermatophytes, which cause nail fungal infections. Undecylenic acid is a well-known antifungal, which acts to prevent recurrence. These topical treatments for nail fungus also contain hydroquinone as a chemical stabilizer in cyanoacrylate compounds.
After received topical treatments, all of patients who suffered mild toenail fungus infection were cured at 1 year or less. In patients who suffered moderate fungal infection, cyanoacrylates topical treatments have 65% cure rate. 95 of 154 patients were suffered from severe nail fungus. They had only a 36% cure rate. 70 % of them are satisfied after received this nail fungus topical treatments.
The results are better than topical cicloprox (penlac) and oral terbinafine (lamisil). Patients which treated with topical cicloprox had only 36 cures rate of mild and moderate nail fungus. Oral terbinafine had lesser cures rate, which only cures 25% of nail fungal infections.
We can conclude that this combination therapy provides an alternative choice for toenail fungus removal that appears better than others available treatment, such as topical cicloprox and oral lamisil treatment.
Reference:
Paul Rehder, Tim T. Nguyen. A New Concept in the Topical Treatment of Onychomycosis With Cyanoacrylate, Undecylenic Acid, and Hydroquinone. Foot & Ankle Specialist. 2008; 1; 93
