A randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trail of topical administration of 1％ azithromycin eye drops for acute bacterial conjunctivitis

Abstract

Background Acute bacterial conjunctivitis is a common ocular infectious disease.It can be cured by topical administration of antibiotics,but these antibiotic eye drops often was used several times per day at present.Azithromycin is thought to offer less using times and shorten the duration of treatment.Objective The purpose of this clinical trail was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of topical administration of 1％azithromycin eye drops for the treatment of acute bacterial conjunctivitis.Methods This study was approved by Ethic Committee of Beijing Tongren Hospital and followed the Declaration of Helsinki.Written informed consent was obtained prior to entering into this trial.A randomized,double-blind and placebo-controlled study was designed.One hundred and eighty patients with acute bacterial conjunctivitis were enrolled in Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao Medical College and Qingdao Municipal Hospital from may,2011 to September,2011.Azithromycin eye drops at the concentration of 1％ was topically administered on 89 eyes of 89 patients twice per day initial and once per day later for 9 days in the trial group,and placebo eye drops was used on 91 eyes of 91 patients in the same way in the control group.The inflammation response of all eyes was examined and scored under the slit lamp microscope,and germiculture was carried out.All adverse responses were assessed during the follow-up.Clinical efficacy was evaluated with the clinical cure rate as the primary indicator and bacterial clearance rate as the secondary indicator.The safety of drug was determined,including the ocular irritation sign,lens transparency and intraocular pressure.The differences of the examining results mentioned-above were compared with Chi Square test.Results One hundred and eighty patients completed the clinical trials according to the program without lost and exclusion cases.The clinical cure rate in 89 subjects in the trial group and 91 control individuals was 76.40％ (68/89) and 43.96％ (40/91),respectively,with significant difference between them (x2=19.73,P＜0.01).The bacterial eradication rate was 85.71％ (24/28) in the trial group and 60.53％ (23/38) in the control group,showing a significant difference (x2 =4.99,P＜0.05).Both 1％ azithromycin eye drops and placebo were well-tolerated with a low incidence of adverse events.Conclusions One percent azithromycin eye drops is effective and safe for the treatment of acute bacterial conjunctivitis with less adverse reaction. Key words: Azithromycin; Eye drops; Bacterial conjunctivitis; Randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trail