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Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In reply

Dr Taylor is, of course, quite correct. Interpretation of the results reported by Solomon et al¹ is complicated by their having treated subjects with clinical disease at 6, 12, and 18 months with topical tetracycline ointment. The effect this might have had on final infection rates at 24 months is hard to judge. By the 6-month examination, before any additional topical treatment was applied, the infection load had been reduced by more than 90% and the prevalence of infection by more than 80%.¹ While the effect of topical and systemic antibiotic treatment is judged to be similar, this depends to a large degree on the level of compliance with the treatment regimen, which can be problematic in the case of topical tetracycline ointment.

A number of other caveats listed in my original review of the article by Solomon et al² are relevant to interpreting . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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