Healio
Healio
May 14, 2009
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Several characteristics may differentiate children with acute otitis media with spontaneous otorrhea from those without

Children with acute otitis media and spontaneous otorrhea who were evaluated as part of a retrospective study had several epidemiologic and microbiologic characteristics that distinguished them from their counterparts with intact tympanic membranes who underwent tympanocentesis.

Researchers from Israel evaluated 5,247 patients aged 3 to 36 months who were hospitalized for acute otitis media (AOM) during 1999 to 2006 and who had cultures positive for one of four pathogens: Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis or Streptococcus pyogenes.

The following distinguishing characteristics were more common among the 822 patients with spontaneous otorrhea compared with patients who underwent tympanocentesis:

  • Older age (15.8 vs. 9.7 months, P < 0.01); 36.9% were aged younger than 12 months compared with 69.1% (P < 0.01).
  • Infected with S. pyogenes (OR: 8.2, 95% CI: 5.4-12.3, P < 0.001).
  • Lack of antibiotic treatment in the 48 hours preceding diagnosis (OR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.7-2.6, P < 0.001).
  • One or more previous episode of AOM (OR: 3.2, 95% CI: 2.6-4.0, P < 0.001).
  • One or more previous tympanocentesis (OR: 1.4, 95% CI: 1.4-1.7, P < 0.001).

“Since data on spontaneous otorrhea are limited, we considered that a large-scale study […] would be of interest,” the researchers wrote.

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