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.

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

Data Synthesis: We reviewed 5 placebo-controlled and 2 comparative studies evaluating oral antivirals for acute treatment of recurrent herpes labialis.