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Antibiotics are not necessary for patients after most routine endoscopic sinus surgeries despite the common practice to prescribe them, according to a team led by researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.
In a new randomized controlled trial, patients who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery had no differences in outcomes including symptoms and infections whether they took an antibiotic or placebo after surgery. The only reported difference in outcomes was in side effects, with patients in the antibiotic group 10 times more likely to report symptoms like diarrhea.
The trial s findings were published December 19 in For routine sinus surgery, antibiotics are unnecessary and may cause more complications like gastrointestinal side effects said study co-senior author Eric H. Holbrook, MD, director of the Division of Rhinology at Mass Eye and Ear and Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School. There have been studies that have sugg