Abstract
Macrolide therapy has been reported to be effective for the treatment of chronic sinusitis in adults. However, whether it is effective for the treatment of chronic sinusitis in children is still controversial. Here we report the results of a clinical study on the effectiveness for the treatment in chronic sinusitis in children, as compared with adults. In this study, we included 30 children and 30 adults with chronic sinusitis who underwent macrolide therapy. The children were given 100 mg of clarithromycin and the adults 200 mg of clarithromycin or 150 mg of roxithromycin per day orally for three months. Rhinorrhea were improved at the end of the three months in 87% of the children and 67% of the adults, but the difference of the efficacy was not statistically significant. However, sinus X-rays revealed significant improvement in the shadow of the sinuses in the children after the macrolide therapy. In bacteriological examinations the pathogens were frequently isolated from the middle nasal meatus at the entry of the study, but rarely at the end of the three months in the case of the children. From these results, we concluded that macrolide therapy can be extremely effective for the treatment of chronic sinusitis in children, since bacterial inflammation may play a greater role than allergic inflammation in the pathogenesis of chronic sinusitis in children.
