The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7411 p126
29 July 2006

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Purulent rhinitis will get better without antibiotics

Antibiotics for treatment of acute purulent rhinitis, although likely to be effective, should not be used first line, conclude researchers (BMJ Online First, 21 July 2006, "Are antibiotics effective for acute purulent rhinitis? Systematic review and meta-analysis of placebo controlled randomised trials").

They found that antibiotics showed benefit against purulent rhinitis (pooled relative risk of benefit 1.18, 95 per cent confidence interval 1.05–1.33). However, the pooled relative risk for adverse effects was 1.46 (CI 1.10–1.94).