Tinea capitis is an infectious disease that affects specially children and has as the main clinical features pruritus, scaling, breaking hairs and alopecia. Conventional treatment is based on the use of griseofulvine, a drug that needs to be used for a mean period of 45 days and have important adverse effects. In this prospective work, clinical and epidemiological aspects of tinea capitis in children living in Marituba, Pará, were analyzed. Furthermore, the efficacy of a 2-week regimen of terbinafine was analyzed. Among the main findings are: 1) the identification of the genera Trichophyton as the most prevalent in the cases of tinea capitis in this region, represented by the species Trichophyton tonsurans and Trichophyton rubrum; 2) the characterization of the clinical picture with pruritus, scalling, breaking hairs and alopecia, what is consistent with the literature; 3) the absence of a specific relation between the clinical picture and the etiologic agent found, what does not permit the diagnosis of the species only by the clinical picture; 4) the identification of antropophilic fungi as the etiologic agents, what indicates the possibility of interhumans transmission instead of animal-human transmission, besides the high levels of contact found between children and animais; and 5) the efficacy and safety of terbinafine, that is well tolerated and had a high healing rate of 94.11%, specially considering the fact that the predominant genera in the region of Marituba, Pará, is the Trichophyton. Therefore, the use of terbinafine in the patients diagnosed with tinea capitis in this region is an alternative to the use of griseofulvine.
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