Fifty patients with chronic sinusitis were treated with rokitamycin (RKM), a 16-member macrolide, for durations ranging from 2 to 12 weeks. Improvement in both subjective symptoms and objective findings increased with the progress of the treatment. After 12 weeks of treatment, the improvement rates for 5 subjective symptoms ranged between 56.5-85.7%, and the rates for 5objective findings ranged between 56.3-77.8%, the overall efficacy rate was 52.8%. The average efficacy rate on the final day of observation was 50.0%, and the rate for patients who had 3 or more of the symptoms at the start of the treatment was 53.8% on the final day of observation. The rates of improvement on the radiographic findings were 59.4%-66.7% for the maxillary sinuses and 64.3-70.0% for the ethmoidal sinuses. With regard to safety, there were 6 cases of abnormal laboratory data, including 4 cases of abnormal hepatic function and 1 case each of elevated amylase and occult blood in the urine. It was concluded from these results that RKM therapy is as useful as other 14member macrolides in the treatment of chronic sinusitis.
