EFFICACY AND TOLERANCE OF CEFIXIME AS COM PARED TO PENICILLIN-V IN CHILDREN WITH BACTERIAL PHARYNGITIS AND TONSILLITIS

154 children aged 2 to 12 years with clinical diagnosis of bacterial p haryngitis and/or tonsillitis and - in most of the patients - a positi ve enzyme immunoassay for group A beta-hemolytic streptococci before t herapy were enrolled in this open controlled randomized and multicente r trial. The children received either 8 mg/kg bodyweight cefixime once daily or 20000 I.E. pencilline V/kg bodyweight t.i.d. Clinical evalua tion and microbiological tests were carried out before treatment and 1 -5 days after end of the treatment. 3-4 weeks after end of the treatme nt the rate of relapses was evaluated. The data of 149 children could be evaluated for clinical efficacy. In the cefixime group 93,3% of the children were cured and 6,7% improved corn pared to 89,2% and 10,8%, respectively, in the penicillin V group. Complete microbiological data were obtained from 136 patients. The eradication rate was 82,7% in th e cefixime group and 77% in the group of patients treated with penicil lin V. At follow up relapses were seen in 7 of the cefixime treated pa tients and in 6 of those receiving penicillin V. Mild side effects wer e reported by 4 patients in the cefixime group and by 3 children treat ed with penicillin V (1 drop out each). These resultes show that cefix ime once daily is at least as effective as penicillin V t.i.d. in phar yngitis and tonsillitis in children. Both compounds are well tolerated .