Management of Sore Throat

Watch the video to hear specific details relating to the management of sore throat.

Michael focusses on the evidence looking at the effectiveness of the prescribing of antibiotics for sore throat and presents the current guidelines for managing sore throat.

The current NICE guidance advises paracetamol or if preferred a suitable ibuprofen for pain, and to use the Centor or FeverPAIN scoring symptoms to indicate when to prescribe antibiotics. A useful tool is the NICE visual summary for acute sore throat.

Antibiotics should only be prescribed if the FeverPAIN score is 4-5 (Fever, Pus on tonsils, Attend rapidly, severely Inflamed tonsils, No cough or coryza) or the Centor score is 3-4 (pus, temperature, glands and no cough).

If FeverPAIN is 2 or 3 consider no antibiotic or back up antibiotic. If FeverPAIN is 0 or 1 or Centor is 0, 1 or 2 then do not offer an antibiotic.