Friday, August 25, 2017

Treatment of streptococcal tonsillopharyngitis: Important points for USMLE

Hello!

Here's a quick post of treatment of "strep throat" (my slang for "Tonsillopharyngitis due to Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as group A Streptococcus.")

Why treat:
Reduces duration and severity of clinical signs and symptoms.
Reduces transmission to close contacts by reducing infectivity.
Reduces incidence of nonsuppurative complications (eg, acute rheumatic fever) - IMPORTANT!

Who to treat:
Symptomatic pharyngitis if the presence of group A streptococci in the pharynx is confirmed by culture or rapid antigen detection testing (RADT).
Clinical and/or epidemiologic factors point to a high index of suspicion for GAS pharyngitis.

Drug of choice: Oral penicillin V

Yummy yumm: Amoxicillin is often used in place of oral penicillin in children, since the taste of the amoxicillin suspension is more palatable

Treatment failure or beta-lactam hypersensitivity: First-generation cephalosporins (such as cephalexin and cefadroxil).

Clinical improvement: Within the first few days.

Duration of oral antibiotic therapy: 10 days (for prevention of ARF!)

Test of cure:  Not necessary.

-IkaN

No comments:

Post a Comment

This is express yourself space. Where you type create something beautiful! <3
Wondering what do I write? Well...
Tell us something you know better. You are a brilliant mind. Yes, you are! ^__^
Ask about something you don't understand @_@?
Compliment... Say something nice! =D
Be a good critic and correct us if something went wrong :|
Go ahead. Comment all you like here! (:

PS: We have moderated comments to reduce spam. ALL comments that are not spam will be published on the website.