Otitis media and its consequences: beyond the earache - 12/12/13

Doi : 10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70012-8

Anne Vergison, MD ^a,^⁎ , Ron Dagan, MD ^b, Adriano Arguedas, MD ^c, Jan Bonhoeffer, MD ^d, Robert Cohen, MD ^e, Ingeborg DHooge, MD ^f, Alejandro Hoberman, MD ^g, Johannes Liese, MD ^h, Paola Marchisio, MD ⁱ, Arto A Palmu, MD ^j, G Thomas Ray, MBA ^k, Elisabeth AM Sanders, MD ^l, Eric AF Simões, MD ^m, Matti Uhari, MD ⁿ, Johan van Eldere, MD ^o, Stephen I Pelton, MD ^p

^a Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Epidemiology Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

^b Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, Ben Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel

^c Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Division of Pediatrics, Instituto de Atención Pediátrica, University of Medical Sciences, San Jose, Costa Rica

^d Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Vaccines, University Children’s Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

^e Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, Creteil Hospital, France

^f Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

^g Division of General Academic Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

^h Department of Vaccines and Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Children’s Hospital Würzburg, Germany

ⁱ Paediatric Department, University of Milan and Fondazione IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore, Policlinico Mangiagalli e Regina Elena, Milan, Italy

^j Clinical Research Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

^k Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA, USA

^l Department of Paediatric Immunology, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, Netherlands

^m Department of Pediatrics, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA

ⁿ Department of Pediatrics and Adolescence, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

^o Department of Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium

^p Pediatric Infectious Diseases Department, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

^* Correspondence to: Anne Vergison, Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Epidemiology Unit, ULB-Hôpital Universitaire Des Enfants Reine Fabiola, 15, Avenue JJ Crocq, 1020 Brussels, Belgium

Summary

An international group of multidisciplinary experts on middle-ear and paediatric infections met to explore where consensus exists on the management of acute otitis media. After informal discussions among several specialists of paediatric infectious disease, the group was expanded to include a larger spectrum of professionals with complementary expertise in middle-ear disease. Acute otitis media is a very common bacterial infection in children worldwide, leading to excessive antibiotic consumption in children in most countries and to a substantial burden of deafness and suppurative complications in developing countries. The group attempted to move beyond the existing controversies surrounding guidelines on acute otitis media, and to propose to clinicians and public health officials their views on the actions needed to be taken to reduce the disease burden caused by acute otitis media and the microbial antibiotic resistance from the resulting use of antibiotics. Definition of acute otitis media and diagnostic accuracy are crucial steps to identify children who will potentially benefit from treatment with antibiotics and to eliminate unnecessary prescribing. Although the group agreed that antibiotics are distributed indiscriminately, even to children who do not seem to have the disease, no consensus could be reached on whether antibiotics should be given to all appropriately diagnosed children, reflecting the wide range of practices and lack of convincing evidence from observational studies. The major unanimous concern was an urgent need to reduce unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics to prevent further increases in antibiotic resistance. Prevention of acute otitis media with existing and future viral and bacterial vaccines seems the most promising approach to affect disease burden and consequences, both in developed and developing countries.

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