Microsporum canis tinea capitis in an 8-month-old infant successfully treated with 2 weekly pulses of oral itraconazole

We report an 8-month-old girl with tinea capitis caused by Microsporum canis which was successfully treated with two pulses of oral itraconazole 50 mg/day, each of 1 week duration with an interval of 2 weeks. M. canis tinea capitis can be a difficult therapeutic problem in an infant, as the treatment is usually long, lasting up to 4-6 weeks with griseofulvin and 6-12 weeks with terbinafine, and the desire to provide a safe systemic therapy is particularly important. With an intermittent regimen the duration of treatment with active drug can be much shorter compared to continuous therapy. We found that itraconazole pulse therapy for M. canis tinea capitis was a safe and effective treatment in an infant.