Editorials
Antibiotics for acute purulent rhinitis
Probably effective but not routinely recommended
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Despite efforts to lower the prescribing of antibiotics for upper respiratory infections the prescription rates are still over 60%.1 Mucopurulent rhinitis is a component of the common cold, for which antibiotics are generally not effective.2 Guidelines specifically recommend against using antibiotics to treat rhinitis. 3 4 Nevertheless, the colour of the nasal discharge doubles the odds of being prescribed antibiotics.5 In one study no general practitioners said that they would give antibiotics for clear rhinitis but 72% would for purulent rhinitis.6 Moreover, a recent study of acute purulent rhinitis showed a significant reduction in the duration of purulent symptoms from 14 days for placebo to nine days for amoxicillin.7 These findings warrant a reconsideration of the evidence and guidelines for antibiotics in acute purulent rhinitis.
One evidence based guideline in paediatrics (reviewed by the
American Academy of Pediatrics) stated that mucopurulent rhinitis is
not an indication for antimicrobial treatment unless it persists for
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Establish reason why purulent rhinitis is persistent first
- Peter J Robb
BMJ 2003 326: 502.[Extract] [Full Text]
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Robb, P. J
(2003). Establish reason why purulent rhinitis is persistent first. BMJ
326: 502-502
[Full text]
Rapid Responses:
Read all Rapid Responses
- Beyond traditional physical semeiotics: Biophysical Semeiotics.
- Sergio Stagnaro
bmj.com, 6 Dec 2002 [Full text] - rhinitis or sinusitis?
- Henri Partouche
bmj.com, 9 Dec 2002 [Full text] - Antibiotics for acute purulent rhinitis : effective?
- An I De Sutter, et al.
bmj.com, 16 Dec 2002 [Full text] - Acute purulent rhinitis - what is the diagnosis?
- Peter J Robb, et al.
bmj.com, 5 Jan 2003 [Full text] - Purulent Rhinitis - Diagnosis
- Ray L Friedman
bmj.com, 21 Feb 2003 [Full text]
This Article
- Full text
- Respond to this article
- Read responses to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when responses are posted
- Alert me when a correction is posted
Services
- Email this article to a friend
- Find similar articles in BMJ
- Find similar articles in ISI Web of Science
- Find similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
- Read articles citing this article
- Citing Articles via Web of Science (3)
- Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
PubMed
Related Content
-
Ear, nose and throat/otolaryngology
-
Infectious diseases
-
General practice / family medicine
- Clinical trials (epidemiology)
- Relevant Article
- Find this article in its weekly table of contents
Bookmark with
What's new
Latest blogs
Find BMJ on:
Services
Tools
Online poll
Resources
Rapid responses for this article
Print issues
