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Researchers say antibiotics may not help most patients with sinus infections.
Reuters (3/14, Kahn) reports that physicians "are overprescribing antibiotics for common sinus infections and related conditions, possibly in the false belief they may help in cases where symptoms are protracted," according to a research published in the Lancet. In an analysis, Dr. James Young, from the Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology in Switzerland, and colleagues "looked at more than 2,500 people with sinus infection-type complaints who had been treated with an antibiotic or a placebo."
The data indicated that "15 patients would need to be treated before one would be cured with antibiotics," according to the BBC (3/14). The researchers said that, "ecause of side-effects, costs, and the risk of resistance, antibiotics are not justified even if patients have been ill for longer than a week." Some "guidelines advise doctors to prescribe antibiotics only when the patient has been ill for seven to 10 days." The BBC notes that "it has been thought that this length of illness may indicate a bacterial rather than viral infection which would be susceptible to antibiotics."
The researchers said that "upper respiratory tract infections are responsible for a full third of doctor's appointments in the United States, and a third of those visits end in a diagnosis of rhinosinusitis," HealthDay (3/13, Edelson, Mundell) added. Approximately "80 percent of patients receive a prescription for an antibiotic."
WebMD (3/13, DeNoon) quoted Dr. Young as saying that the "findings are pretty sad, in a way, because we cannot distinguish patients who really need antibiotics from those who do not." He added, "All we can say is most people won't need antibiotics for sinusitis."
From ACEP journal.
