Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Antibiotics for tonsillitis: should the emergency department emulate general practice?
  1. Kamil Kanji1,
  2. Defne Saatci1,
  3. Gopal G Rao2,
  4. Priya Khanna2,
  5. Paul Bassett3,
  6. Bhanu Williams1,
  7. Murtuza Khan1
  1. 1Department of Paediatrics, Northwick Park Hospital, London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  2. 2Department of Microbiology, Northwick Park Hospital, London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  3. 3Department of Research and Development, Northwick Park Hospital, London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Kamil Kanji, Department of Paediatrics, Northwick Park Hospital, London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, London HA1 3UJ, UK; kamil.kanji{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives To determine whether antibiotics are prescribed appropriately for acute tonsillitis in an emergency department (ED).

Methods Cross-sectional observational study in large district general hospital in London. Patients diagnosed and coded with ‘acute tonsillitis’ in the ED over a 3-month period in 2015. Medical records were reviewed for Centor criteria, which is a clinical scoring system to guide antibiotic prescribing in UK general practice. Drug charts were reviewed for the specific antibiotic(s) prescribed, and throat swab (TS) cultures were recorded.

Results 273/389 patients with tonsillitis were analysed—186 children, 87 adults. Exclusions were missing patient records (86), patients had/awaiting tonsillectomy (22), receiving antibiotics (6) and immunocompromised (2). Centor score (CS) was not recorded for any patient. Based on derived CS from documented signs/symptoms, antibiotics were prescribed inappropriately to 196/273 patients (80%; 95% CI 74% to 85%) including broad-spectrum antibiotics to 25%. These included co-amoxiclav (18%), amoxicillin (6%), azithromycin (0.5%) and ceftriaxone (0.5%). TSs were taken in 66/273(24%) patients; 10/66 were positive for group A streptococcus (GAS). However, 48/56 GAS negative patients were prescribed antibiotics.

Conclusions CS was not being used in the ED to guide antibiotic prescribing for acute tonsillitis. Antibiotic prescribing was based on clinical judgement. Based on derived CS (<3), 80% of patients were inappropriately prescribed antibiotics, particularly broad-spectrum antibiotics. Further studies need to assess use of CS to guide antibiotic prescription in ED. TSs were commonly performed in the ED but did not either improve diagnosis or guide antibiotic prescription.

  • ANTIBIOTICS
  • STREPTOCOCCI
  • ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.