Intravenous ampicillin was more effective than oral
amoxicillin or macrolide (Table 2); fever continued >24
hours in only 1 (4.8%), compared with 19 (28.8%)
patients treated with amoxicillin (p = 0.007) or with
those 2 (50.0%) treated with macrolide (p = 0.056). In
multivariate analyses, adjusted for age category, fever
lasted in mean 11.1 hours less in children treated with
ampicillin, than in those treated with amoxicillin (p =
0.001). The treatment setting was significantly associated
with the duration of fever (Table 2). In hospitalized children
the duration of fever was shorter than in outpatients;
the difference was significant also in the ageadjusted
analyses.