This paper compares two treatments for infected eczema: mupirocin cream (applied to the skin) versus cephalexin (taken as pills). The study looked at how well each treatment worked and how safe they were.

This was a double-blind study across multiple medical centers. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either mupirocin cream three times daily or cephalexin pills four times daily for 10 days. The researchers measured both clinical success (improvement in skin infection) and bacterial success (reduction in bacteria).

The study included 159 patients who had eczema with secondary infections. These were patients whose infections were mild enough that they could be treated with topical medications. All patients needed to have a certain level of infection severity (score of 8 or more on a skin infection rating scale).

Both treatments worked similarly well for improving skin symptoms (89% success for mupirocin cream vs 82% for cephalexin pills). However, mupirocin cream was significantly better at eliminating bacteria (50% success) compared to cephalexin pills (28% success). Both treatments had similar safety profiles, with 9-13% of patients reporting side effects like diarrhea and nausea.

The authors concluded that mupirocin cream works just as well as oral cephalexin for treating infected eczema, and is actually better at eliminating bacteria. They also found that patients preferred using the cream over taking pills, which could lead to better treatment compliance.