Five vs ten days of penicillin V therapy for streptococcal pharyngitis
M. A. Gerber, M. F. Randolph, J. Chanatry, L. L. Wright, K. De Meo and E. L. Kaplan
To determine the effectiveness of a short (five-day) course of penicillin V
potassium therapy, 172 patients with group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal
(GABHS) pharyngitis were randomly assigned to receive 250 mg of penicillin
V potassium three times daily for either five or ten days. The patients in
the two treatment groups were comparable with respect to clinical findings,
compliance, and serologic response to GABHS. A bacteriologic treatment
failure was defined as the presence of the same serotype of GABHS in the
follow-up as in the initial throat culture and occurred in 13 (18%) of the
73 patients in the five-day treatment group and in six (6%) of the 99
patients in the ten-day treatment group. These findings support the current
recommendation for a full ten days of oral penicillin V therapy for the
treatment of GABHS pharyngitis.
