Comparison of the Effectiveness of Levofloxacin and Amoxicillin-Clavulanate for the Treatment of Acute Sinusitis in Adults

Abstract

In this comparative trial, outpatients with acute sinusitis were randomly assigned to receive levofloxacin (500 mg orally once daily) or amoxicillin-clavulanate (500/125 mg orally 3 times daily) for 10 to 14 days. The success rates (cured and improved) 2 to 5 days after the end of treatment were 88.4% for the 267 clinically evaluable patients who received levofloxacin and 87.3% for the 268 clinically evaluable patients who received amoxicillin-clavulanate. Drug-related adverse events occurred in a smaller percentage of patients in the levofloxacin treatment group (7.4%) than in the amoxicillin-clavulanate treatment group (21.2%). The most common of these were nausea, diarrhea, vaginitis, and abdominal pain for levofloxacin-treated patients and diarrhea, vaginitis, nausea, genital moniliasis, abdominal pain, vomiting, and flatulence for amoxicillin-clavulanate-treated patients. The results of this study show that once-daily administration of levofloxacin is as effective and better tolerated than amoxicillin-clavulanate administered 3 times daily for treating acute sinusitis in adult outpatients.

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