Patient population: Pediatric patients (>2 months old) and adults Objectives: (1) Limit acute symptoms and suppurative complications caused by acute otitis media. (2) Maximize language development and minimize long term damage to middle ear structure associated with otitis media with effusion. (3) Limit complications of antibiotic therapy including the development of antibioticresistant bacteria.

OBJECTIVE To determine the clinical effectiveness of topical intranasal corticosteroids in children with bilateral otitis media with effusion. DESIGN Double blind randomised placebo controlled trial. SETTING 76 Medical Research Council General Practice Research Framework practices throughout the United Kingdom, between 2004 and 2007. PARTICIPANTS 217 children aged 4-11 years who had at le...

Timmy, a two-year-old, has received two antibiotic courses (ampicillin, cefaclor) for acute otitis media during the past year. Today, his mom visits your pharmacy and mentions that they have just returned from an appointment with the boy's doctor. Timmy was diagnosed with otitis media with effusion, which the doctor described as fluid in the ears unaccompanied by fever or any signs of pain or d...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW The purpose of this review is to summarize the recent knowledge on eustachian tube dysfunction and the patulous eustachian tube. RECENT FINDINGS A clinically useful test for eustachian tube function is still lacking. Narrowing of the isthmus alone was demonstrated to be an insufficient cause of otitis media. Inflammatory mediators identified within the eustachian tube and mi...