ReviewAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)2020
Short- vs. Long-Course Antibiotic Treatment for Acute Streptococcal Pharyngitis: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Review in Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of 24 antibiotics for group A streptococcal pharyngitis: a network meta-analysis of 64 randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Time to negative throat culture following initiation of antibiotics for pharyngeal group AEuro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2023Pooled it
- Clinical course of pharyngotonsillitis with group A streptococcus treated with different penicillin V strategies, divided in groups of Centor Score 3 and 4: a prospective study in primary care.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Trial
- General Practitioner's Practice in Romanian Children with Streptococcal Pharyngitis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Shifting the mindset regarding adherence to antibiotic use for respiratory tract infections.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Article
- Antibiotic duration for common bacterial infections-a systematic review.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Review
- Comparative efficacy and safety of co-amoxiclav, cefpodoxime proxetil, and levofloxacin in patients with acute uncomplicated bacterial tonsillitis: A prospective, open-label, parallel group study.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2024Article
- Optimising antibiotic exposure by customising the duration of treatment for respiratory tract infections based on patient needs in primary care.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Review
- An Epidemiologic Study of Bacterial Culture and Antibiotic Susceptibility Analyses in Captive Macaques and Marmosets at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center.Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2024Article
- Sudden-Onset Acute Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Associated with Streptococcus and Brain MRI Hyperintensity in a Young Adult.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Examining pharmacoepidemiology of antibiotic use and resistance in first-line antibiotics: a self-controlled case series study ofFrontiers in antibiotics · 2024Article
- Antibiotic Use for Common Infections in Pediatric Emergency Departments: A Narrative Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Short-term antibiotic therapy for the most common bacterial respiratory infections in infants and children.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Review
- Short-course antibiotic therapy: The next frontier in antimicrobial stewardship.Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada · 2022Article
- Editorial:Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Paediatrics: how to manage pharyngitis in an era of increasing antimicrobial resistance.Drugs in context · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo evaluate the effectiveness of short courses of antibiotic therapy for patients with acute streptococcal pharyngitis.
methodsRandomized controlled trials comparing short-course antibiotic therapy (≤5 days) with long-course antibiotic therapy (≥7 days) for patients with streptococcal pharyngitis were included. Two primary outcomes: early clinical cure and early bacterial eradication.
resultsFifty randomized clinical trials were included. Overall, short-course antibiotic treatment was as effective as long-course antibiotic treatment for early clinical cure (odds ratio (OR) 0.85; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79 to 1.15). Subgroup analysis showed that short-course penicillin was less effective for early clinical cure (OR 0.43; 95% CI, 0.23 to 0.82) and bacteriological eradication (OR 0.34; 95% CI, 0.19 to 0.61) in comparison to long-course penicillin. Short-course macrolides were equally effective, compared to long-course penicillin. Finally, short-course cephalosporin was more effective for early clinical cure (OR 1.48; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.96) and early microbiological cure (OR 1.60; 95% CI, 1.13 to 2.27) in comparison to long-course penicillin. In total, 1211 (17.7%) participants assigned to short-course antibiotic therapy, and 893 (12.3%) cases assigned to long-course, developed adverse events (OR 1.35; 95% CI, 1.08 to 1.68).
conclusionsMacrolides and cephalosporins belong to the list of "Highest Priority Critically Important Antimicrobials"; hence, long-course penicillin V should remain as the first line antibiotic for the management of patients with streptococcal pharyngitis as far as the benefits of using these two types of antibiotics do not outweigh the harms of their unnecessary use.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.