Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) is estimated to affect approximately 1% of the UK population. ETD and subsequent inadequate middle ear ventilation have been implicated in the pathogenesis of otological diseases including otitis media with effusion (OME), retraction pockets, tympanic membrane (TM) perforation and cholesteatoma. Patients may present with vague, non-specific symptoms including a...

Otitis media (OM), a middle-ear infection, is the most common childhood illness treated by pediatricians. If inadequately treated, OM can result in long-term chronic problems persisting into adulthood. Children with chronic OM or recurrent OM often have conductive hearing loss and communication difficulties and require surgical treatment. Tympanostomy tube insertion, the placement of a small dr...

BACKGROUND The impact of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7 [Prevnar]) on penicillin-nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae (PNSP) recovered from children with acute otitis media (AOM) is unclear. METHODS At 5 hospitals, 505 pneumococcal isolates were collected from children with AOM between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2002. Molecular subtyping was performed on 158 isolates...

CONTEXT No randomized, controlled, prospective study has evaluated the effect of growth hormone (GH) on the rates of middle ear (ME) disease and hearing loss in girls with Turner syndrome (TS). DESIGN A 2-year, prospective, randomized, controlled, open-label, multicenter, clinical trial ('Toddler Turner Study'; August 1999 to August 2003) was carried out. SETTING The study was conducted at ...

Otitis media and otitis media with effusion are among the most common childhood illnesses and contribute a great deal to health care costs. The cause of otitis media is multifactorial. Eustachian tube dysfunction, bacterial or viral infection of the middle ear, and nasal inflammation resulting from allergic rhinitis or upper respiratory infection are acknowledged contributing factors. Data from...

OBJECTIVES: Misdiagnosis of acute and chronic otitis media in children can result significant consequences from either undertreatment or overtreatment. Our objective was to develop train an artificial intelligence algorithm accurately predict the presence middle ear effusion pediatric patients presenting operating room for myringotomy tube placement. METHODS: We trained a neural network classif...