Short course therapy with cefuroxime axetil for acute otitis media: results of a randomized multicenter comparison with amoxicillin/clavulanate.

Background: Otitis media is a common infection of childhood. Increasing antibiotic resistance rates among the principal causative pathogens, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae, are associated with failure of first line agents.

Objective: This open, randomized, multicenter study compared the clinical efficacy of a short 5-day course of cefuroxime axetil (CAE) suspension with that of amoxicillin/clavulanate (A/CA) suspension for 8 or 10 days.

Methods: Children age 6 to 36 months with acute otitis media with effusion, diagnosed by tympanocentesis and microbiologic culture, were randomized to receive CAE (30 mg/kg/day in two divided doses for 5 days) or A/CA 40 mg/kg/day in three divided doses for 10 days (A/CA-10). In French centers A/CA was given at 80 mg/kg/day in three divided doses for 8 days (A/CA-8). Patients were assessed 1 to 4 days after completing the course (posttreatment) and followed up at 21 to 28 days after completing the course.

Results: Of the 716 patients randomized, 252 were treated with CAE, 255 with A/CA-10 and 209 with A/CA-8. In the clinically evaluable population, the proportions of patients with clinical cure at posttreatment were 175 of 203 (86%), 181 of 205 (88%) and 145 of 164 (88%) in the CAE, A/CA-10 and A/CA-8 groups, respectively, demonstrating equivalence among the three treatments. For patients <18 months old, clinical cures were 111 of 134 (83%), 116 of 131 (89%) and 83 of 99 (84%) in the CAE, A/CA-10 and A/CA-8 groups, respectively; equivalence was also demonstrated. At follow-up, 130 of 175 (74%) CAE, 121 of 172 (70%) A/CA-10, and 112 of 142 (79%) A/CA-8 had maintained cure. A total of 837 pretreatment pathogens were isolated from middle ear fluid in 73% (522 of 716) patients, the majority of isolates were S. pneumoniae (30%) and H. influenzae (27%). The most common adverse events were gastrointestinal, the incidence of drug-related diarrhea being higher in the A/CA-10 group (18%) than in either the CAE or A/CA-8 groups (10%).

Conclusions: A 5-day course of CAE, given twice daily, was shown to be equivalent to the two regimens of A/CA for treatment of acute otitis media with effusion in children.