Efficacy of twice-daily amoxycillin/clavulanate in lower respiratory tractinfections

In this double-blind, double-dummy study, 324 patients with clinical eviden ce of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) or an acute exacerbation of chroni c bronchitis were randomly assigned to receive 10 days' treatment with eith er amoxycillin/clavulanate 875/125 mg twice daily or amoxycillin/clavulanat e 500/125 mg three times daily. At the end of therapy, clinical success rat es were 92.4% for the twice daily regimen and 94.2% for the three times dai ly regimen. There was no statistically significant difference between treat ments (p=0.647) and the 95% confidence interval around the treatment differ ence indicated that the two treatments were equivalent. Treatment equivalen ce was also confirmed at follow-up, four weeks after the end of treatment. Both regimens were well tolerated. In conclusion, amoxycillin/clavulanate 8 75/125 mg twice dal ly is as effective as amoxycillin/clavulanate 500/125 m g three times daily for the treatment of community-acquired lower respirato ry tract infections and could improve patient compliance.