[Preseptal and orbital cellulitis in childhood: response to intravenous antibiotics].

PURPOSE: To evaluate retrospectively the response of preseptal and orbital cellulitis in children to empiric antibiotic treatment.

METHOD: We included nine patients (five male and four female) admitted to our hospital between October 2002 and October 2003 because of preseptal or orbital cellulitis.

RESULTS

Four patients (44.4%) responded to empiric antibiotic treatment (R); five (55.5%) did not respond (NR) and required a second antibiotic to resolve the infection. The presence of an upper respiratory infection was the most common associated disease in both groups, R and NR. However we also found two cases of acute dacryocystitis in the NR. Four patients (44.4%) were treated with cefotaxime intravenously with the infection resolving in three of these. Five patients (55.6%) were treated with cefuroxime intravenously as first empiric option, however only one patient responded.

CONCLUSIONS

We found a high prevalence of acute dacryocystitis as a potential cause of the cellulitis. Children with preseptal and orbital cellulitis responded better to cefotaxime than to cefuroxime. The presence of acute dacryocystitis was associated with a lack of response to cefuroxime.