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Doctors training notes

Antibiotics don't help earaches

Antibiotics are largely ineffective in treating recurring ear infection in children, according to an analysis of 33 studies looking at this method of treatment.

After reviewing the earlier studies, American researchers conclude that antibiotics are of 'limited' use in treating acute otitis media (AOM), 'requiring treatment of nine children to show an improved outcome in one.'

The effect of antibiotics is also limited in the treatment of otitis media with effusion (discharge). 'Six patients need to be treated to improve the outcome in one . . . And [im-provement] is of relative short duration. 'One month or more after treatment is completed, there is no statistically significant improvement with controls.' They conclude that the lack of any long-term improvement undermines one of the principle rationales for administering the drugs.

'As a major goal of treatment of [otitis media with effusion] is the prevention of language or developmental delays due to hearing deficits, the lack of long-term effectiveness leads one to question the value of antibiotic treatment.' - JAMA, 15 September 1993.

Ear Infection: Doing nothing is as good as antibiotics - Around 15 million prescriptions are written every year in the USA for an antibiotic for children with the ear infection, acute otitis media.

Otitis media - Try osteopathy before grommets - OTITIS MEDIA Try osteopathy before grommets Osteopathy offers a long-term solution to acute otitis media (AOM), a childhood ear infection usually tr...

Fungal ear infection - Q My hearing has been deteriorating for a long time and, two years ago, it came to a head after a long airplane flight. Since then, I have had a varie...

Cut out antibiotics for ear ache - Early use of antibiotics provides only modest benefit for acute otitis media, concludes a major meta analysis. ...

Ear ache: no antibiotics - Two independent studies provide a further nail in the coffin to treatment of childhood earache with antibiotics. ...

Antibiotics: Not so fast, doc - The doctor’s promise to ‘first do no harm’ may have to be altered to: ‘First do nothing’. Doctors who do not immediately prescribe antibiotics for tr...

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