Antibacterial treatment of otitis and sinusitis with ciprofloxacin and penicillin V--a comparison.

80 adult outpatients suffering from otitis media, sinusitis (maxillaris or frontalis) or peritonsillitis were treated with 500 mg ciprofloxacin b.i.d. (n = 40) or with 2 g penicillin V t.i.d. (n = 40). The patients were randomly allocated. Three groups of patients resulted, clinically and bacteriologically evaluable, or only clinically evaluable because the isolated strains were resistant to ciprofloxacin or penicillin V or because no strains were isolated. Ciprofloxacin was superior to penicillin V; there were fewer resistant strains (one compared to 11), and the eradication rate (57% compared to 43%) as well as the clinical efficacy (60% compared to 48%) of ciprofloxacin were better than those of penicillin V--even in a daily dose of 6.0 g. Both treatments were well tolerated; side effects were neither reported nor found.