PERSPECTIVE
Acute otitis media
Searching for the Holy Grail of acute otitis media
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
S L Block
Kentucky Pediatric Research, Inc, 201 South 5th Street, Bardstown, KY 40004, USA; slblock@pol.net
Use of PCV7 causes a major shift in the microbiology of AOM towards H influenzae, but the search for the Holy Grail of AOM still remains elusive
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
For decades, investigators have been searching for one of the Holy Grails of acute otitis media (AOM)—that is, an easy non-invasive marker that would identify or even suggest the specific pathogen causing AOM. Antibiotic selection by clinicians for almost all episodes of AOM is empirical. Most episodes of AOM usually result from congestion of the eustachian tube by an antecedent virus infection, which then allows one or two of the four typical aerobic bacteria, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxiella catarrhalis or Streptococcus pyogenes, to ascend into the middle ear space, causing the painful purulent effusion of AOM. Viruses seem to be an uncommon aetiology of AOM, as positive cultures for viruses being the sole pathogen of AOM occur in only 5–6% of cases.1,2
How commonly do bacteria cause AOM? Many multicentre studies report bacterial culture-positive rates between 55% and 75% of children,
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Drugs: infectious diseases
-
Ear, nose and throat/otolaryngology
-
Otitis
-
TB and other respiratory infections
- Pain (neurology)
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
