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Standard of care for persistent symptoms compatible with acute bacterial rhinosinusitis for more than 10 days IS prescribing antibiotics.
by darth_avocado 1y ago
Standard of care for persistent symptoms compatible with acute bacterial rhinosinusitis for more than 10 days IS prescribing antibiotics.
- sarchertech 1y agoJust asked my wife (ER doctor). She says it's 2 weeks for adults, 3 weeks for kids.
- darth_avocado 1y agoI also confirmed with a MD friend of mine, 10 days or more of worsening symptoms could be indicative of bacterial sinusitis. For adults you can begin the treatment on that diagnosis. You can also start antibiotic treatments before 10 days in certain conditions but it is generally not recommended. Just because a patient shows up on 11th day with worsening symptoms doesn’t mean you have to wait 2 weeks.
- sarchertech 1y agoSure. It’s a guideline not a hard rule. Doctors have wide latitude. A doctor could give you antibiotics whenever they want. The doctor didn’t do anything wrong by asking you to wait a few days. In addition to residency, my wife is fellowship trained, she’s who PCPs end up sending patients to. She’s basically level 2 tech support (an ENT would be level 3 for this particular problem). She sees the results of this stuff all the time. And the majority of PCPs vastly overprescribe antibiotics for sinus infections. The vast majority of patients who come in saying they have a sinus infection and asking for antibiotics are wrong. Doctors are tasked with antibiotic stewardship, but people complain on review sites when they don’t get what they want, so many of them just do it.