Chloramphenicol eye drops in the treatment of conditions indicative of maxillary sinusitis.

BACKGROUND Our own clinical experience of general practice over the last 15 years has indicated that chloramphenicol eye drops may have a favourable effect on many patients troubled by symptoms indicative of acute maxillary sinusitis. We wanted to conduct a pilot study to test whether this observation could be verified. MATERIAL AND METHOD Treatment with chloramphenicol eye drops or systemic peroral antibiotics was tested on patients with symptoms indicative of acute maxillary sinusitis. The patients were randomised to two groups, one of which received systemic peroral antibiotics, the other received chloramphenicol eye drops. RESULTS A total of 33 patients were included in the trial--27 women and six men--15 of whom were randomised to the tablet group and 18 of whom were randomised to the chloramphenicol group. The patients who were treated with tablets experienced clear improvement after an average of 5.0 days, while patients who were treated with chloramphenicol eye drops, experienced improvement after 3.7 days (p = 0.047). Of the patients in the chloramphenicol group, 14 described improvement within three days, while this applied to only five patients in the tablet group. INTERPRETATION Treatment with chloramphenicol eye drops appears to represent a treatment option for some patients with symptoms indicative of acute maxillary sinusitis. In the pilot study, the period of treatment before symptoms improved was shorter in patients who were given eye drops than in patients who were given systemic peroral antibiotics. These promising results give grounds to undertake studies on a larger scale.