Oral antivirals for the acute treatment of recurrent herpes labialis.

Objective: To evaluate the use and benefit of oral antivirals in the acute treatment of episodic, recurrent herpes labialis.

Methods: A literature search was performed in MEDLINE (1966-August 2003) using acyclovir, famciclovir, valacyclovir, cold sores, herpes labialis, and HSV-1 as search terms.

Results: We reviewed 5 placebo-controlled and 2 comparative studies evaluating oral antivirals for acute treatment of recurrent herpes labialis. No studies directly compared different antivirals. Studies discussing the efficacy of antivirals for chronic suppression of herpes simplex virus-1 infection were not included.

Conclusions: Treatment with oral antivirals decreases the duration of lesion episodes and pain by approximately one day; however, the antivirals do not abort lesions from developing. Clinical implications of these results appear relatively modest.