Antibiotic treatment. Aerosol therapy.

Aerosol antibiotics in control studies have been shown to improve lung function and reduce the number of acute hospital admissions in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). However, their administration is time-consuming in patients who must already take a large amount of medication daily. Aerosol antibiotics are expensive, but the cost is minimal compared with the cost of a hospital admission or intravenous antibiotics. When this method of administration of antibiotics first began to be widely used in the treatment of CF, there was much concern that hypersensitivity reactions might occur and that drug-resistant organisms would cause clinical problems. Minimal drug hypersensitivity has been reported, and there is no solid evidence that the small increase in resistance to some antibiotics associated with the use of aerosol antibiotics is in any way detrimental to the patients. These minor disadvantages must be weighed against the possible advantage of using aerosol antibiotics in any given clinical situation.