Ceftibuten: a new expanded-spectrum oral cephalosporin

Efficacy of cefditoren pivoxil and amoxicillin/clavulanate in the treatment of pediatric patients with acute bacterial rhinosinusitis in Thailand: a randomized, investigator-blinded, controlled trial

BACKGROUND

The recommended treatment for acute bacterial rhinosinusitis in adults and children is 10 to 14 days of high doses of oral cephalosporins or amoxicillin/clavulanate.

OBJECTIVE

This study compared the clinical efficacy and tolerability of cefditoren pivoxil and amoxicillin/clavulanate in children with uncomplicated acute bacterial rhinosinusitis.

METHODS

This was a randomized, investigator-blinded, controlled study in pediatric patients (age 1-15 years) with clinical and radiographic signs and symptoms of acute rhinosinusitis. Patients were allocated to receive either cefditoren (8-12 mg/kg daily) or amoxicillin/clavulanate (80-90 mg/kg amoxicillin daily) for 14 days. Changes in sinus symptoms were assessed daily by patients or their parents using a quantitative symptom score (the S5 score). Rates of improvement, the primary efficacy measure, were also evaluated by the study investigators 7 and 14 days after the initial visit. Secondary outcome measures included time to improvement, adverse effects, and rates of relapse (assessed at days 21 and 28) and recurrence (assessed at day 60) of sinus symptoms. Relapse was defined as a subjective rating of lack of improvement at day 21 or 28 in a patient rated as improved on day 14, and recurrence was defined as sinus symptoms lasting for >or=10 days during the second month of follow-up in a patient rated as improved on day 28. Time to improvement was defined as the number of days between the initial visit and the time at which caregivers noted an improvement in patients' symptoms. Adverse events were monitored by parents/caregivers using a self-administered questionnaire and were also elicited by telephone contact.

RESULTS

The study enrolled 142 pediatric patients: 70 in the cefditoren group (42 males, 28 females; median age, 7.15 years) and 72 in the amoxicillin/clavulanate group (37 males, 35 females; median age, 6.60 years). Four patients in the cefditoren group were excluded from the study analyses (2 who were noncompliant [used <80% of the assigned medication] and 2 who developed infection at other sites). There were no significant differences in baseline medical history or signs and symptoms between the 2 groups. Rates of improvement at day 14 in the cefditoren and amoxicillin/clavulanate groups were 78.8% (52/66) and 84.7% (61/72), respectively (P = NS). There was no significant difference in the change in S5 scores between groups at day 14. The median time to improvement was 3.0 days in both groups. There were no significant differences between groups in rates of relapse (9.1% and 11.1%) or recurrence (3.0% and 5.6%) of sinus symptoms. The most common adverse event in both groups was diarrhea, occurring in 4.5% of the cefditoren group and 18.1 % of the amoxicillin/clavulanate group (P = 0.02).

CONCLUSION

In these children with acute bacterial rhinosinusitis, there were no significant differences between cefditoren and amoxicillin/clavulanate, the currently recommended treatment, in terms of rates of response, relapse, or recurrence.

Antibiotic Resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae: What Does the Future Hold?

The recent emergence of strains of drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (DRSP) is a serious clinical and public health problem. Several interventions have been proposed to limit the further emergence and spread of DRSP, including campaigns for appropriate antibiotic use and the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Whether the current epidemic of drug resistance in S. pneumoniae is sustainable or will succumb to current efforts to limit its spread will be decided by an interaction of factors related to the pathogen (i.e., the relative fitness of the resistant strains), to the prescription of antibiotic treatment (i.e., changes in selection pressure), and to the host (i.e., the ability to slow the transmission of DRSP). Much investigation is still needed to better ascertain how maintenance of DRSP strains in the community at large is influenced by each factor and affected by current interventions that are based on these factors.

Novel oral cephalosporins

The therapeutic use of oral cephalosporins to treat infectious diseases continues to challenge clinicians; many attempts have been made over recent years to improve the efficacy and spectrum of these anti-infectives. Many oral cephalosporins are in development and include cefdinir, cefprozil, cefetamet pivoxil, cefcapene pivoxil, cefcanel daloxate hydrochloride in Phase II trials, S-1090 in Phase III trials and the novel compounds E1100, E1101 and BRL-57347. Differences between these drugs are sometimes subtle and the improvement over existing compounds modest, although recent cephalosporins have shown greater activity against Gram-negative bacterial infections. A better knowledge of the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic interrelationships of existing oral cephalosporins is demanded for a more rational use of these compounds and to avoid the subsequent development of resistance. Perhaps with such an approach, the perceived need for new cephalosporins will diminish.