Comparison of the effect of amoxicillin and cefriaxone in treatment of acute otitis media in children under 6 years old

Acut Otitis Media (AOM) is one of the most frequent diseases in children. Antibiotic therapy prevents the complications and decreases the period of the disease. This study was conducted to compare the efficacy of a single dose of intramuscular ceftriaxone and oral amoxicillin in treatment of this infection.

This study was carried out on 160 children under 6 years suffering from AOM. They divided in two groups of 80s. The first group was treated with 50-80 mg/kg/day of oral amoxicillin for 10 days and the second group with a single dose (50 mg/kg) of intramuscular ceftriaxone. The patients were evaluated for responding to treatment with the antibiotics, 2 and 4 weeks after the first visit.

Our results showed that 58.8% of patients were boys and 41.2% were girls and the efficacy of the two drugs were similar with %80 efficacy (p>0.05). There was no significant relationship between risk factors and the resolution of the disease.

Amoxicillin is as effective as ceftriaxone in the treatment of AMO. Therefore its vsage in the treatment of AOM is recemended.