Abstract
Forty-four patients with chronic sinusitis were treated with low-dose levofloxacin (100mg/day) for 8 weeks. The overall effective rate including both excellent and good clinical responses in subjective symptoms was 29% for rhinorrhea, 41% for postnasal drip, 42% for nasal obstruction, 52% for headache and 53% for hyposmia. Each effective rate of objective signs was 30% for nasal mucosal hyperemia, 42% for nasal mucosal edema, 55% for the volume of rhinorrhea, 61% for the quality of rhinorrhea and 70% for postnasal drip. These subjective symptoms, the objective signs and the X-ray findings for paranasal sinus all significantly improved after the treatment (P<0.001). No significant side effects were found during this treatment course. The clinical efficacy at 8-weeks was better than that at 4 weeks and no relationship was observed between the bacterial effects and the clinical effects. Therefore, the effective mechanism of this therapy was not considered to be associated with its antibacterial activity, but instead with some unknown mechanism, such an immunological enhancement.
