Background & Objectives : Sinusitis is inflammation of perinasal sinuses. Gold standard for diagnosis and etiology of bacterial sinusitis is a positive culture of punctured samples in sterile conditions, which is invasive procedure. This study was designed to compare the effects of clarithromycin versus amoxicillin on treatment of acute community acquired bacterial sinusitis in children.

  Methods: This study was conducted as a single-blind clinical trial, with 30 randomly selected patients in each of two groups (case and control). Acute sinusitis was defined as sinusitis not lasting more than 4 weeks. Inclusion criteria were defined as existence of post nasal septic drip or nasal prulent secretions plus at least 3 out of 4 conditions as follows: unilateral local pain on face or head, halitosis, deterioration of symptoms in recent 5 to 7 days and axillary temperature equal to or greater than 38 degrees centigrade. For one group of patients (group A) clarithromycin (KLACID) 15 mg/kg in two divided doses, and for another group (group B) amoxicillin 40 mg/kg in three divided doses, were administered. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS (rel 9) using Chi-square and t-test.

  Results: In view of response to treatment, 9 persons in group B (30%) and 26 persons in group A (86%) felt healthy on tenth day of therapy. The difference was statistically significant (P=0.001) using Chi-square test. Mean days before patients’ improvement was calculated to be 10 ± 0 (mean ± SD) days for group B and 6±1.9 days for group A. The difference was statistically significant (P=0.001).

  Conclusion: Despite relatively small sample size, the difference found between effectiveness of two drugs was significant (p=0.001). Thus clarithromycin can be used as one of the effective drugs in treatment of acute bacterial sinusitis.