Treatment of symptoms of rhinopharyngitis in children with a new anti-inflammatory agent.

An open trial of piroxicam, a new nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent with long-lasting analgesic and antipyretic activities, was carried out on 49 children as outpatients with viral rhinopharyngitis. Piroxicam administered once daily as an oral suspension gave significant improvement in all parameters, both respiratory (nasal obstruction and discharge, hoarseness, sore throat) and general (headache, dysphagia). A lowering in body temperature was also observed. Recovery seemed to have a more favourable trend in patients treated with piroxicam than to previous treatments. Tolerability of piroxicam was satisfactory in all but six patients who showed only slight transitory side-effects.