Bacteriology of chronic sinusitis after amoxicillin-clavulanate potassium therapy

The bacteriology of chronic sinusitis was studied after amoxicillin-clavulanate potassium therapy. Patients with chronic sinusitis were randomly divided into 2 groups. In the study group, 90 patients were given a 2-week course of amoxicillin-clavulanate potassium before functional endoscopic sinus surgery. In the control group, 113 patients did not take any antibiotics within 2 weeks before the surgery. Swab specimens were taken from the maxillary and ethmoid sinuses during surgery and sent for aerobic and anaerobic culture. In the study group, the culture rates of maxillary and ethmoid sinuses were 45.6% and 28.9%, respectively. In the control group, the culture rates of maxillary and ethmoid sinuses were 53.1% and 34.5%, respectively. The culture rates between the control group and the study group were not significantly different, either for the maxillary sinus or the ethmoid sinus. This showed that treatment with amoxicillin-clavulanate potassium did not change the bacteriology of chronic sinusitis.