Abstract: Objective To assess efficacy and safety of oral brivudine 125 mg once daily versus 4 times daily in the treatment of herpes zoster.Methods A five-centre,randomized,double-blind,parallelcontrolled study was performed on 226 patients with herpes zoster.Oral brivudine 125 mg was given once daily to 112 patients,and four times daily to 114 patients,both for 7 days.All patients were followed up for 3 weeks after the end of treatment.Results The time to the last formation of new vesicles was 3.88 days for the once daily group,and 3.79 days for the 4 times daily group,without significant differences between the two groups.There was also no significant difference between the two groups with respect to the time to total resolution of vesicles,time to first crusts,time to full crusting,time to first loss of crusts,time to full loss of crusts,time to first relief of pain,and time to complete relief of pain.Postherpetic neuralgia occurred in 34.5% of patients in the once daily group,and 30.4% of patients in the 4 times daily group.The incidence of treatment-related adverse events was 5.4% and 9.6%,in the once daily group and 4 times daily group, respectively.Conclusions Brivudine 125 mg once daily is equally effective,more convenient and safe in comparison with brivudine 125 mg 4 times daily for the treatment of herpes zoster.

Key words: Brivudine, Herpes zoster, Randomized controlled trials