In a landmark trial conducted at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, researchers have demonstrated that when treating children between 9 and 23 months of age with antibiotics for ear infections, a shortened course has worse clinical outcomes without reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance or adverse events.
The results of the trial are published in the New England Journal of Medicine and highlighted by an accompanying commentary.
“Given significant concerns regarding overuse of antibiotics and increased antibiotic resistance, we conducted this trial to see if reducing the duration of antibiotic treatment would be equally effective along with decreased antibiotic resistance and fewer adverse reactions,” said Alejandro Hoberman, M.D., chief, Division of General Academic Pediatrics at Children’s, and the Jack L. Paradise Endowed Professor of Pediatric Research at Pitt’s School of Medicine.
“The results of this study clearly show that for treating ear infections in children between 9 and 23 months of age, a 5-day course of antibiotic offers no benefit in terms of adverse events or antibiotic resistance. Though we should be rightly concerned about the emergence of resistance overall for this condition, the benefits of the 10-day regimen greatly outweigh the risks,” said Dr. Hoberman.
Source & further reading:http://www.upmc.com/media/NewsReleases/2016/Pages/nejm-paper.aspx
Paper:http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1606043
Corina Marinescu
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