Ref (type)	Population	Outcome, Interventions	Results and statistical analysis	Effect size	Favours
Treatment failure
Systematic review	95 people Data from 1 RCT	Treatment failure 2 weeks 1/45 (2%) with topical permethrin 12/40 (30%) with oral ivermectin	RR 13.50 95% CI 1.84 to 99.26	Large effect size	permethrin
RCT	242 adults and children (aged 2–84 years) with clinically and microscopically diagnosed scabies	Clinical cure rate (absence of new lesions and all old lesions healed) 2 weeks 112/121 (93%) with topical permethrin 104/121 (86%) with oral ivermectin	P = 0.42		Not significant
RCT 3-armed trial	120 adults and children (aged >5 years and/or >15 kg) with clinically and microscopically diagnosed scabies	Clinical cure (reduction in number of lesions and grade of pruritus by 50% or more) 2 weeks 33/38 (87%) with topical permethrin 31/40 (78%) with oral ivermectin (single dose) 26/39 (67%) with oral ivermectin (2 doses, 2 weeks apart)	P values not reported No significant differences observed between topical permethrin and oral ivermectin (1 and 2 doses)
RCT 3-armed trial	120 adults and children (aged >5 years and/or >15 kg) with clinically and microscopically diagnosed scabies	Treatment failure (no improvement in pruritus or skin lesions, appearance of new lesions or persistence of mites and their products on microscopy) 4 weeks 2/38 (5%) with topical permethrin 4/40 (10%) with oral ivermectin (single dose) 4/39 (10%) with oral ivermectin (2 doses, 2 weeks apart)	P = 0.769		Not significant