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Physicians prescribe antibiotics for most patients who are diagnosed with acute sinusitis, but is this helpful? To find out, researchers performed a meta-analysis of data from nine randomized trials that involved 2547 immunocompetent adult patients with clinical symptoms of sinusitis who received either antibiotics or placebo. All trials excluded patients who had signs and symptoms (high fever, periorbital swelling, erythema, or intense facial pain) suggestive of serious complications that require antibiotic treatment.
Basing their analysis on individual patient data, the authors estimate that 15 patients overall would need to be treated with antibiotics for 1 patient to be cured; the number needed to treat dropped to 8 among patients with p…