STUDY OF THE EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF CIPROFLOXACIN IN THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC SINUSITIS

Over a twelve months period, 56 patients presenting with an acute exacerbation of chronic sinusitis, have been included in this study. Mean age of patients was 48.6 +/- 15.2 years, mean duration of symptoms was, at inclusion 10.1 +/- 12.1 years and the current episode of exacerbation lasted 2.4 +/- 4.4 months. Patients received 500 mg ciprofloxacin twice daily for 9 days Bacteriological specimens. positive at inclusion in 53.76 % resulted in the isolation of 25 Gram positive and 16 Gram negative pathogens. At the end of treatment, rhinorrhoea which was the main criterion of efficacy, disappeared in 46 of the 54 examined patients (85 %). Among the 30 patients with bacteriologically documented sinusitis, eradication was noted in 90 % of the cases. Four weeks after the end of treatment, success rate was 74.5 %, partiel success rate 21.2 % and failure rate, 4.3 %. There was no bacteriologicol relapse. Ten adverse events were observed in 7 patients and caused the withdrawal of treatment in 4 of them (7 %). Ciprofloxacin appears to be an effective and well tolerated treatment of acute exacerbation of chronic sinusitis treated in office practice.