Topical medication of Tobramycin drops is more effective than Levofloxacinor drops for bacterial suppurative otitis: a retrospective study
Authors
- Shoude Zhang 1
- Mao Jin 1
- Jun Liu 2
- Lei Zhang 1
- Yuan Zhao 2
- Mang Xiao 1
- Dan Zhang 1
- Guojin Zhou 1
- Ying Lu * 3
Abstract
Topical medications of Levofloxacinor drops and Tobramycin drops are common therapies for bacterial suppurative otitis. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of the two treatment methods for this disease by retrospective analysis. Total 289 cases prescribed Levofloxacinor drops (n = 154) or Tobramycin drops (n = 135) in the past five years were respectively selected from two hospitals in Zhejiang Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The total rate of treatment effectiveness of Tobramycin group is 91.1% while that of Levofloxacinor group is 81.2% (P=0.018). Specifically, in chronic cases, Tobramycin group (84.5%) had higher treatment effectiveness than Levofloxacinor group (65.1%) (P=0.0212). The enrolled cases had lower microbial sensitivity to Levofloxacinor (85.8%) than Tobramycin (92.4%), especially to Staphylococcus aureus (Tobramycin 93.5% versus Levofloxacinor 86.5%). For cases with treatment failure, a second treatment was given. Except for cases with Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, most cases with Levofloxacin treatment failure could be cured by Tobramycin. Conversely, most cases with Tobramycin treatment failure could not be cured by Levofloxacin. In conclusion, Topical medication of Tobramycin drops might be a better or at least good alternative for the empirical treatment of bacterial suppurative otitis.
