The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued new guidelines to improve diagnosis and treatment of acute bacterial sinusitis in children.
Doctors have been prescribing antibiotics to children diagnosed with acute upper respiratory infections, fevers and nasal discharge based on a 2001 guideline. The new guidelines, published in the online edition of journal Pediatrics urges doctors to avoid prescribing antibiotics to children immediately and monitor the child for three days in addition to the regular 10-day check-up.
However, children exhibiting severe symptoms of the condition should be given immediate treatment.
"The practitioner can either treat immediately or consider waiting for a couple of days," Dr. Ellen Wald, chairwoman of the academy's subcommittee on acute sinusitis, told Health Day. "If the kid doesn't look dramatically ill, you can wait an extra couple of days to see if they improve on their own."
AAP suggests doctors start their treatment with amoxicillin. They should change the medication if the child does not show any improvement within 72 hours.
AAP also found that imaging was not very useful in differentiating acute bacterial sinusitis from viral upper respiratory infection (URI ) for a proper diagnosis. So the Pediatricians suggested the need to take a "contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan" of paranasal sinuses for a proper diagnosis of the orbital and central nervous system complications.
The new guidelines are expected to reduce prescribing antibiotics to children unnecessarily and solve risks of an antibiotic resistance, Health Day reported.
"If we prescribe fewer antibiotics, then the problem of antibiotic resistance is controlled," Wald told the website. "If you can avoid the use of antibiotics, then that is reasonable."
