Acute Pharyngitis | Etiology | Diagnosis | Treatment | ENT

Pharyngitis is an inflammatory condition of the back of the throat, the pharynx. Acute pharyngitis is more common, and symptoms usually resolve within ten days. Treatment for acute pharyngitis is usually focussed on treating the symptoms. Most cases of acute pharyngitis are viral, but some are bacterial. Antibiotics are only helpful if bacterial infection is the cause for acute pharyngitis. But even if it clearly is bacterial, which can sometimes be hard to tell, antibiotic treatment is not necessarily recommended for all patient groups. However, chronic pharyngitis can be caused by a number of different factors besides infection.

In chronic pharyngitis, the soreness either does not go away or recurs frequently. Pharyngitis may be chronic if the sore throat lasts for more than a few weeks. There are several underlying causes for chronic pharyngitis, and treatment depends on what the underlying cause is.