| Abstract [eng] |
Relevance of the problem and aim of the work. Upper respiratory tract infections are very common among children. Despite the upper respiratory tract infections commonly being viral, antibiotics are frequently prescribed to treat these infections worldwide. The aim of this work – to do a systematic literature review of the antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infections in children. Methods and materials. Scientific articles were identified by searching the MEDLINE (through PubMed) database. In this systematic review, articles, which indicated the amount of the children with upper respiratory tract infections who received an antibiotic prescription and type of antibiotic prescribed, were included. All the selected articles were written in English and published in the 2012-2022 period. Data was analyzed applying narrative review. Results. 4 articles were included in the systematic review after the thorough literature review and the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. All included articles were cross – sectional studies. Percentage of children with upper respiratory tract infections who received antibiotics distributed unevenly: 27,1 % in China, 37 % in rural China, 58,7 % in South Korea and 26,7 % in Italy. Penicillins were prescribed from 45 % to 58,5 %; cephalosporins were prescribed from 20,3 % to 66 %, macrolides – from 8 % to 24,3 %. Conclusions. Antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infections in pediatric patients was too frequent. The prescription of first-line antimicrobial drug, penicillin, was insufficient. Unreasonably frequent treatment with macrolides and cephalosporins was observed. |
