Are antibiotics effective for acute purulent rhinitis?
Antibiotics should not be given to patients with acute purulent rhinitis (a runny nose with coloured discharge), a familiar feature of the common cold, concludes a study published on bmj.com today. General practitioners often prescribe antibiotics for respiratory tract infections when nasal discharge is purulent. Most guidelines recommend against their use for this condition, but this advice is based on one study that showed no effect. So researchers in New Zealand searched the scientific literature for trials comparing antibiotics with placebo for acute purulent rhinitis (duration less than 10 days). They identified seven trials. Pooling the results showed that antibiotics for acute purulent rhinitis may be beneficial. The numbers needed to treat ranged from 7 to 15, meaning that, at best, six patients get no benefit for every one who gets benefit. Harms attributed to antibiotics were mainly vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain, but also included rashes and hyperactivity. The numbe
