Appropriate use of antibiotics for URIs in children: Part I. Otitis media and acute sinusitis. The Pediatric URI Consensus Team.

Five conditions--otitis media, acute sinusitis, cough, pharyngitis and the common cold--account for most of the outpatient use of antibiotics in the United States. The first part of this two-part article presents guidelines that encourage physicians to make an appropriate distinction between acute otitis media and otitis media with effusion, to use shorter courses of antibiotic therapy in uncomplicated cases of otitis media and to limit prophylaxis to recurrence as defined strictly by number of episodes. Sinusitis in younger children is difficult to distinguish from the common cold, and the criterion for use of antibiotics should be duration of symptoms.