Efficacy and Safety of Cefpodoxime in Treatment of URTI

18 Aug, 21

Introduction

Cefpodoxime is a third-generation cephalosporin. It is an appropriate choice for treating community-acquired respiratory tract infections because of its broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and favourable pharmacokinetic profile that allows for a twice-daily administration regimen.

Aim

To evaluate efficacy and safety of cefpodoxime for the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) in Egyptian adults

Patient Profile

Adult patients, presenting with acute maxillary sinusitis and tonsillopharyngitis

Methods

Prospective, Observational, Multicentre Study

Endpoints

The primary endpoint was to assess the effectiveness of cefpodoxime
- The proportion of patients exhibiting a complete recovery of clinical symptoms for acute sinusitis and tonsilopharyngitis

The secondary end point was to assess safety of cefpodoxime treatment
- Safety was evaluated by measuring the prevalence and severity of adverse events (AEs)

Results

The majority of patients (74.3%) were prescribed cefpodoxime at dose of 200 mg/day.
The mean duration of treatment was 5.87 ± 1.73 days; the most frequently reported prescription durations were five days, 10 days and seven days for 75.2%, 13% and 10.5% of patients, respectively.
Significant reductions in URTI-related signs and symptoms were observed in subjects prescribed cefpodoxime for a mean 5.87 ± 1.73 days
Mean body temperature and heart rate values were significantly reduced to 37.03 ± 0.28^°C and 78.6 ± 8.52 beats/min (p < 0.001)
Superior outcomes were observed in patients with acute tonsilopharyngitis

compared to the acute maxillary sinusitis cohort (p < 0.001)

Figure 1: Clinical outcome and cure rates in patients treated with cefpodoxime

Safety

All AEs were mild to moderate in intensity, and none were serious
The overall tolerability of cefpodoxime, according to physicians’ assessment was
- excellent in 92.7% of patients
- fair in 7% of patients
- poor for 0.4% of patients
Patient-reported tolerability was 88.9% described the treatment as excellent, 10.5% fair, and 0.6% poor

Conclusion

Empirical treatment with cefpodoxime in patients with acute URTIs showed clinically significant results in both patients with acute maxillary sinusitis and tonsillopharyngitis

Safety outcomes were tolerable and no serious adverse events were reported

Reference

Egypt. J. Ear Nose Throat Allied Sci. 2017;18 :131–135