No benefit of high dose amoxicillin with clavulanate for acute sinusitis, Finds study

The study is published in the JAMA Open Network.

Acute bacterial sinusitis is common, but currently recommended antibiotic treatment provides minimal benefit.

Hence, Jennifer Gregory and colleagues from the Department of Medicine and Pediatrics, Albany Medical Center Hospital, Cohoes, New York conducted the present study to confirm the previous finding that high-dose amoxicillin plus clavulanate (with double the amount of amoxicillin) may be superior to standard-dose amoxicillin plus clavulanate in adults.

The authors carried out this double-blind, comparative-effectiveness randomized clinical trial on participants included adults aged 18 years or older who were prescribed amoxicillin plus clavulanate for acute bacterial sinusitis. At an unplanned interim analysis prompted by COVID-19 restrictions, 157 of a projected 240 participants had been enrolled (mean age, 48.5 [range, 18.7-84.0] years; 117 women [74.5%]), with 79 randomized to the standard dose and 78 to the high dose; 9 and 12, respectively, withdrew or were lost to follow-up before the assessment of the primary outcome.

Amoxicillin 875 mg with clavulanate 125 mg plus either placebo (standard dose) or amoxicillin 875 mg (high dose) twice a day for 7 days were the interventions planned.

The primary efficacy outcome was a global rating of "a lot better" or "no symptoms" at the end of 3 days of treatment using a Global Rating of Improvement scale, with outcomes ranging from 1 (a lot worse) to 6 (no symptoms). The primary adverse effect outcome was severe diarrhea at 3 or 10 days after the start of treatment.

The following results were observed-

a. At day 3, 31 of 70 participants (44.3%) in the standard-dose group reported a global rating of "a lot better" or "no symptoms," as did 24 of 66 (36.4%) in the high-dose group, for a difference of −7.9% (95% CI, −24.4% to 8.5%; P = .35).

b. Diarrhea was common in both groups by day 3, with any diarrhea reported in 29 of 71 participants (40.8%) receiving the standard dose and 28 of 65 (43.1%) receiving the high dose and severe diarrhea reported in 5 of 71 (7.0%) and 5 of 65 (7.7%), respectively.

Hence, the authors concluded that "adults treated for clinically diagnosed acute sinusitis did not appear to benefit from taking high-dose compared with standard-dose amoxicillin plus clavulanate."