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Showing posts from March, 2012

New guideline for the treatment of sinusitis released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

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The new guideline emphasize that the vast majority of sinus infections are caused by viruses and should not be treated with antibiotics. In those cases the new guidelines call for shorter treatment time than older guidance, which suggested a 10 to 14 days weeks of antibiotic treatment for a bacterial infection. The IDSA  guideline  suggests that five to seven days is long enough to treat  most bacterial infection without encouraging resistance in adults, though children should still receive the longer course. Because of increasing resistance to amoxicillin (the current standard of care) the guideline recommends amoxicillin-clavulanate as the treatment of choice for acute sinusitis.   A moxicillin-clavulanate   is a combination that helps to overcome antimicrobial resistance by inhibiting an enzyme that breaks down the antibiotic. The guidelines also recommend against other commonly used antibiotics, including azithromycin, clarithromycin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, because of