Clinical evaluation of flurbiprofen alone and plus ampicillin in chronic pharyngitis in acute phase

An open, controlled, completely randomized between-patients study was carried out on 41 patients with chronic pharyngitis in the acute phase. The study was divided in two parts. In the first one the effect of a single flurbiprofen rectal dose was studied in 10 patients: 5 treated with flurbiprofen (120 mg) and 5 with flurbiprofen (100 mg) plus oral ampicillin (500 mg). In the second part 31 patients were treated with flurbiprofen (200 mg/day) for 4 weeks; 18 out of 31 were also treated with ampicillin (1 g/day) for the first week. The mean age was approximately 53 years in the single dose study and 40 days in the long-term one. Flurbiprofen alone allowed an excellent control of pain and of signs of inflammations equivalent to the one obtained in combination with ampicillin but without exposing the patients to the risks of the undesired effects of antibiotics.