[Appropriateness of treatment of acute pharyngotonsillitis according to the scientific evidence].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions in children with acute pharyngotonsillitis.


METHODS
A descriptive study was performed in a series of pediatric patients diagnosed with acute pharyngotonsillitis in the emergency rooms of 11 Spanish hospitals. The appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions was assessed by comparing our clinical practice in the use of antibiotics for pharyngotonsillitis with consensus guidelines developed for this study.


RESULTS
We collected data from 1716 patients with acute pharyngotonsillitis. Antibiotics were prescribed in 80.9 %, mainly according to empirical criteria. The most commonly used antibiotics were amoxicillin (36 %), amoxicillin-clavulanate (22.5 %), cefixime (6.6 %), azithromycin (5.8 %) and cefuroxime (5.2 %). A total of 39.5 % of the patients were aged less than 3 years, of which 75.9 % were treated empirically. Of the prescribed treatments, 22.8 % were considered as the treatment of choice; 22.4 % as alternatives and 54.8 % as inappropriate.


CONCLUSIONS
Antibiotic treatment was prescribed in most of the cases of pharyngotonsillitis and nearly always according to empirical criteria. The number of antibiotic prescriptions was far higher than the expected cases of bacterial pharyngotonsillitis and, in many cases, the antibiotic prescriptions were inappropriate.
Ochoa Sangrador
C
C
Servicios de Pediatría. Hospital Virgen de la Concha. Zamora. Spain. cochoas@meditex.es
Vilela Fernández
M
M
Cueto Baelo
M
M
Eiros Bouza
J M
JM
Inglada Galiana
L
L
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004363:Drug Utilization; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D010612:Pharyngitis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013030:Spain; D014069:Tonsillitis / Q000188:drug therapy*
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents