Common Sinus Infection Treatments May Not Work
December 6th, 2007 Posted by: Dr. Cox
(Ivanhoe Newswire) â The medicine you take for a sinus infection may not be doing you any good.
A new study finds a common antibiotic and topical steroid were no more effective than placebo.
Sinus infections are common and have symptoms similar to other illnesses. They are often diagnosed and treated without knowing for sure that a patient actually has one. And doctors prescribe antibiotics even though there may not be a bacterial infection.
Researchers from England wanted to determine the effectiveness of the antibiotic amoxicillin and the topical steroid budesonide in patients with acute maxillary sinusitis â rhinosinusitis; inflammation of the nasal cavity and sinuses. They divided 240 adults with acute non-recurrent sinusitis into four treatment groups â antibiotic and nasal steroid (amoxicillin three times a day for seven days and budesonide in each nostril once a day for 10 days); placebo antibiotic and nasal steroid; antibiotic and placebo nasal steroid; placebo antibiotic and placebo nasal steroid.
The study found symptoms lasting 10 or more days in 29-percent of those taking amoxicillin versus 33.6-percent of those not taking the antibiotic; and 31.4-percent for patients taking budesonide versus 31.4-percent of those not taking the nasal steroid.
âOur main conclusions are that among patients with the typical features of acute bacterial sinusitis, neither an antibiotic nor a topical steroid alone or in combination are effective in altering the symptom severity, the duration, or the natural history of the condition,â write the authors. âTopical steroids are likely to be effective in those with such features but who have less severe symptoms at presentation to the physician.â
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: JAMA, 2007;298:2487-2496