title: [When and why are antibiotics indicated in airway infections (except pneumonia)?].
abstract: Infections of the upper airways reduce life quality of adults on average twice, that of children even 4 to 8 times a year. Usually these are viral infections subsiding spontaneously without antibiotics. Only if concomittant circumstances arise and in specific clinical situations (otitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, epiglottitis) as well as in acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis are antibiotics already indicated at first consultation. The physician who is usually consulted by a patient with increasing discomfort under self-medication and who is expecting an antibiotic treatment has next to the clinical findings and prior laboratory test results to consider before all the individual (home, workplace, school) and epidemiologic (influenza) situation, the possible pathogens, their susceptibility to antibiotics as well as the side effects and costs for the decision to prescribe antibiotics. Today because of an increasing pressure of selection for pathogens resistant to antibiotics a greater reluctance to prescribe antibiotics is recommended. This requires close follow-up of the patient with symptomatic treatment or only short "probatory" antibiotic therapy and a good patient-physician relationship.
authors.affiliation: Zürcher Höhenklinik Wald, Faltigberg.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Brändli
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Luterbacher
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Egli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016527:Drug Costs; D004342:Drug Hypersensitivity / Q000517:prevention & control; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
vernacular_title: Wann und warum sind bei Infekten der Atemwege (Pneumonie ausgenommen) Antibiotika indiziert?