Upper respiratory tract infections: etiology, current treatment, and experience with fluoroquinolones

The most significant upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are sinusitis, otitis media and pharyngitis. All three are frequent causes of morbidity, especially chronic sinusitis in adults and otitis media in children. The need for knowledge of the causative pathogens and of evolving drug resistance patterns is the framework on which appropriate treatment decisions can be made and the focus of this paper.