Cefroxadine in the treatment of children affected by respiratory and ENT diseases. A multicentre study involving 1072 in-patients.

: In this multicentre trial, 1072 hospitalized children, 573 boys and 499 girls (847 of whom were aged less than 6 years), affected by respiratory tract (376 patients) or ENT (696 patients) infections were treated for 10 days with cefroxadine per os, at an average dose of 650 mg/day (325 mg every 12 h corresponding to 25 mg/kg b.w.). Most patients (1047; 97.7%) completed the trial, while 25 patients were withdrawn from the study (20 patients for viral diseases and 5 for side-effects). Of the patients affected by respiratory tract infections, 361 completed the trial and 342 of them (94.7%) were cured in 6.0 days on average. Of the patients affected by ENT infections, 686 completed the trial and 649 of them (94.6%) were also cured in an average of 6.0 days. In the two groups the signs and symptoms of the disease significantly (p less than 0.001) decreased by the end of the study. Some patients (80; 7.6%) complained of side-effects, mainly gastric discomfort (4.9%), skin rash (2.2%) and glossitis (0.5%). In conclusion, cefroxadine exerts a satisfactory antibacterial action with only a few days of treatment, and it appears to be very well tolerated.