Prophylactic antibiotic therapy for fractures of the maxillary sinus.

We conducted a study to examine the incidence of acute sinusitis following maxillary sinus fractures, as well as the impact of antibiotics in the postinjury period. Fifty patients who presented to our institution with a fracture of the maxillary sinus were prospectively randomized to receive either a nasal saline spray and a 3-day course of antibiotics (either amoxicillin/clavulanate or levofloxacin) or nasal saline alone; there were 25 patients in each group. After a minimum of 3 days, all patients were assessed for acute sinusitis. Follow-up data were available on 17 patients (a total of 21 fractured sinuses) in the antibiotic group (68%) and 14 patients (17 fractured sinuses) in the control group (56%). The groups were balanced in terms of demographics, location of fractures, mechanism of fracture, and time to follow-up. After 3 days, 95.23% of the fractured sinuses in the antibiotic group and 88.23% of the fractured sinuses in the control group exhibited signs or symptoms consistent with or suggestive of acute sinusitis. Very few sinuses in either group showed no evidence of sinusitis: only 1 in the antibiotic group (4.76%) and 2 in the control group (11.76%); this difference was not significant (p = 0.5768). We conclude that while the clinical rate of acute sinusitis after maxillary sinus fractures is high, a 3-day course of antibiotics is not effective in preventing its symptoms in the postinjury period.

Chronic rhinosinusitis in patients requiring surgical repair of a midface fracture.

Midface fractures commonly occur following trauma to the face and may cause changes in the normal sinus outflow system. To the best of our knowledge, no study has examined the incidence of rhinosinusitis following midface fractures. We report the incidence of chronic rhinosinusitis in patients who underwent surgical repair of a midface fracture. Our evaluation tool was the 20-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test quality-of-life survey (SNOT-20). We mailed a demographic survey and the SNOT-20 questionnaire to 486 eligible patients who had undergone surgical repair of either a midface (n = 234) or mandible (n = 252) fracture; we had intended to use the latter cohort as a control group. Of the 234 midface patients, 34 (14.5%) returned a usable survey, but only 7 of the 252 mandibular patients (2.8%) did so, which was not a sufficient number for analysis; therefore we used normative data obtained from another study for comparison purposes. The mean SNOT-20 score in our cohort was 24.15, which was similar to the 28.7 mean score in the control cohort of patients with rhinosinusitis. The highest mean scores for the individual components of the SNOT-20 were for "Wake up at night," "Lack of a good night's sleep," "Wake up tired," and "Frustrated/restless/irritable." The components that the most patients found bothersome were "Facial pain/pressure," "Need to blow nose," "Runny nose," and "Lack of a good night's sleep." We conclude that patients who experience a midface fracture have a much higher risk of developing chronic rhinosinusitis that negatively affects their long-term quality of life. These patients should be monitored with long-term follow-up and treated appropriately.

Clindamycin-induced neutropenia following major head and neck surgery.

A 64-year-old man undergoing major head and neck surgery received clindamycin for perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis. On the third postoperative day, he became acutely neutropenic. The neutropenia resolved 3 days later, after the administration of filgrastim. After ruling out other causes of acute neutropenia, we determined that the neutropenia was secondary to clindamycin toxicity. While clindamycin-induced neutropenia has been reported elsewhere, to our knowledge this is the first report of its occurrence following head and neck surgery. Otolaryngologists should be aware of this potentially serious reaction.