Antibiotics do not fight sinusitis

• April 27, 2024

The antibiotics they do not help to fight most of the infections sinusals, although doctors routinely prescribe them for that purpose, a US study revealed.

According to information published in excelsior.com.mx, the researchers, whose work was disclosed in Journal of the American Medical Association, found that antibiotics they did not alleviate patients' symptoms or allow them to return to work faster than an inactive placebo pill.

It is known that medicines encourage the evolution of bacteria resistant to drugs and experts warn more and more vehemently about the dangers of overuse.

This is a specific concern in the case of infections sinus, since doctors can not know if the disease is caused by a bacterium or for a virus , in which case the antibiotics they are useless

"There is not much to gain from antibiotics," he said. Jane Garbutt , of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis , who directed the study.

"Instead of giving everyone a antibiotic hoping to find (the patients) with bacteria , our findings would suggest avoiding drugs and opting for what we call a controlled wait, "said the expert.

This mechanism consists in keeping the patients under surveillance to see if they improve, but without using other drugs that are not over-the-counter analgesics.

People with infections sinus, also called sinusitis acute, have prolonged and severe symptoms similar to those of the flu, such as runny nose and pain around the eyes, nose or forehead.

"It is the fifth most common cause of prescription of antibiotics for adults, it is difficult for doctors not to prescribe one because patients feel very bad and we do not have anything else to give them," Garbutt said.

In an interview for GetQoralHealth , the doctor Rubén Moreno, president of the Mexican Society of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery , explains what is sinusitis and its treatments:

Less than 2% of the infections sinus are bacterial, said Anthony Chow, expert in infectious diseases at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada .

"Most cases are viral and the vast majority do not require antibiotics," said the expert. And you, what treatment do you use in case of a respiratory problem?

Video Medicine: Aspirin Treatment for Chronic Sinusitis - Mayo Clinic (April 2024).