title: Is antibiotic prophylaxis in nasal packing for anterior epistaxis needed?
abstract: Epistaxis is an extremely common problem that sometimes requires anterior nasal packing. Antibiotics are frequently indicated to prevent infectious complications, although the role of this measure is controversial. Searching in Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by screening 30 databases, we identified one systematic review including three primary studies, none of them randomized. We combined the evidence using meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table following the GRADE approach. We concluded it is not clear whether prophylactic antibiotics reduce infectious complications in patients with nasal packing for anterior epistaxis because the certainty of the evidence is very low.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Proyecto Epistemonikos, Santiago, Chile. Address: Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Lira 63, Santiago Centro, Chile. Email: radagabriel@epistemonikos.org.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.affiliation: Proyecto Epistemonikos, Santiago, Chile; Programa de Salud Basada en Evidencia, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Departamento de Medicina Interna, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; GRADE working group; The Cochrane Collaboration.
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rada
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019072:Antibiotic Prophylaxis / Q000379:methods*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004844:Epistaxis / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D009296:Nasal Cavity
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents