BACTERIAL ETIOLOGIES AND ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IN SINUSITIS: A STUDY OF 264 CASES

Although inflammatory processes involving facial sinuses rarely develop during childhood, these antrums due to their anatomic situations are exposed to a variety of biologic and nonbiologic agents after birth. Many types of bacteria are able to initiate inflammatory responses in these antrums. Since effective management of these patients rests upon demonstration of a specific pathogen and testing the organism(s) for sensitivity to a variety of antimicrobial agents and due to the fact that there are distinct epidemiological features in certain regions with respect to the etiologies, we have randomly selected 264 patients with sinusitis from several Tehran hospitals in order to estimate the frequency with which various organisms may cause the condition and to evaluate antibiotic potency and efficacy in eradicating the condition. . In 62.12 percent of cases the causative organisms could be cultured, in 32.3% of which more than one genus of bactria were isolated. The most common bacterium in this setting was Staphylococcus aureus followed in order by pneumococcus, enterobacteriaceae, haemophilus, pseudomonas and branhamella. The sensitivity of these organisms to various antibiotics (suitable in each case) were studied as well.