Doxycycline after sinus surgery

Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (ESS) is one of the most commonly performed elective surgical procedures in the Western world. A prior study in 2015 (Valdez et al. Current trends in preoperative antibiotic use: A survey of Otolaryngologists) reported that 73% of ENT Surgeons reported use of peri-operative antibiotics in ESS. Antibiotic resistance has been described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “one of the biggest threats to global health” and is accelerated by misuse of antibiotics. Data to rationalise or discourage the use of antibiotics are therefore urgently required. The initial aim of the pilot study was to facilitate this larger study to clarify the role of oral antibiotics in this setting. Despite their widespread use in this context, the pilot study has suggested that oral antibiotics may in fact be inferior to placebo in this context. Ultimately this study therefore has the capacity to either rationalise or prevent the use of many millions of antibiotic scripts across the World and potentially generate improved post-ESS outcomes for patients.