Short-course antimicrobial therapy of respiratory tract infections.
Accumulating evidence suggests that short-course (</=5 days, </=3 days for azithromycin) antimicrobial therapy may be at least as effective as and, in some cases, may be more effective than traditional longer (10- to 14-day) therapies.In group A beta-haemolytic streptococcal tonsillopharyngitis, short-course therapy with 6 days of amoxicillin, 4-5 days of a variety of cephalosporins and 5 days of clarithromycin modified-release and telithromycin are all reasonable alternatives to traditional 10-day penicillin therapy. Short-course (i.e. 3-day) azithromycin therapy is not recommended because of suboptimal clinical and bacteriological results compared with penicillin therapy, unless the dosage is doubled from 10 to 20 mg/kg/day for all 3 days.In uncomplicated acute suppurative otitis media, single-dose intramuscular ceftriaxone or 3- to 5-day short-course oral antimicrobial therapy should be effective in the majority (>/=80%) of patients. However, more research is clearly needed in the subpopulations of children <2 years of age and in those with unresponsive/recurrent disease, since short-course therapy may not be successful in the majority of these patients.In sinusitis, most short-course therapy data have involved maxillary disease in adult patients. Regimens have included 3 days of azithromycin or cotrimoxazole (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) or 5 days of cefpodoxime, telithromycin, gatifloxacin, gemifloxacin or amoxicillin/clavulanic acid. Preliminary results are encouraging but more study is clearly needed, especially in the paediatric population.In acute bacterial exacerbations of chronic bronchitis, short-course therapy with a variety of cephalosporins, second-generation fluoroquinolones and advanced generation macrolides/azalides/ketolides are all reasonable alternatives to traditional 7- to 14-day therapies.Cost containment in antimicrobial therapy should involve consideration of short-course therapy in the management of the most common types of respiratory tract infections.[1]References
- Short-course antimicrobial therapy of respiratory tract infections. Guay, D. Drugs (2003) [Pubmed]
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