Acta Pharm. 48 (1998) 133-138
Seventy-four children (three to eight years of age) with streptococcal tonsillopharyngitis treated with three antibiotics have been studied. The selective sample included children hospitalized in the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases due to severe clinical manifestations of the disease in a one-year period. The diagnosis was verified either by positive culture of throat or nasopharyngeal smear or by both of them. Fever, physical signs in throat and enlargement of angular lymph nodes were used as clinical parameters, whereas the leukocyte count before and after the therapy was used as a laboratory parameter. Three antibiotics were used as antimicrobial therapy: azithromycin in 22, cefuroxime in 27 and penicillin in 25 children. Temperature decrease accompanied by regression of clinical symptoms in 48 hours after starting the therapy has been noticed in 64 children (86.5%) with no correlation to the administered antibiotics. No difference in efficacy has been recorded between parenterally and orally administered antibiotics, which is important when the patients are children.
Keywords: streptococcal tonsillopharyngitis, cefuroxime, azithromycin, penicillin, children