EFFICACY OF TOPICAL TACROLIMUS IN TREATMENT OF ORAL LICHEN PLANUS

Introduction: Corticosteroids were the treatment of option for symptomatic oral lichen planus. However, to avoid the associated adverse effects of corticosteroids, many non-steroidal medications were developed with unclear efficacy. Tacrolimus is one of these medications that was recommended by the results of the primary studies. This review aimed to evaluate the evidence of using tacrolimus as an alternative to steroid in treatment of OLP. Methods: An electronic search in MDLINE was achieved to identify randomized controlled trials aimed to assess the clinical efficacy of tacrolimus in treatment of histologically confirmed OLP. After screening of the eligible studies, studies which met the inclusion criteria subjected to data extraction into tables to summary the findings of the included studies. Results: The electronic search resulted in 21 studies, from them only 8 studies found eligible. Among included studies, the sample size ranged from 27 participants to 68 participants and the mean age ranged from 32±10.5 years old to 67.8±11 years old. About the efficacy of tacrolimus, the majority of studies reported higher efficacy than the comparison placebo, topical steroids, or other non-steroidal medications. Four included studies reported efficacy of tacrolimus which was comparable to triamcinolone acetonide [24], steroid [23], oral dapsone [23], retinoid [23], or pimecrolimus. Conclusions: topical tacrolimus is efficient alternative of corticosteroids in the treatment of OLP. It showed a higher or comparable efficacy to all comparison drugs and no study reported significant lower efficacy of tacrolimus. Keywords: Lichen planus, Oral, Symptomatic, Therapy, Corticosteroids