Disease severity in patients referred to pediatric otolaryngologists with a diagnosis of otitis media

SummaryObjectiveThis study evaluated disease severity of children referred to a pediatric otolaryngology practice with a diagnosis of otitis media (OM) before and after tympanostomy tube (TT) placement.MethodsA retrospective review was conducted of patients referred to a pediatric otolaryngology practice from January 2000 to April 2004, with the chief complaint of middle ear effusion (MEE) and/or OM. Patients who underwent TT placement had pre- and post-operative hearing levels (HL) and bilaterality of disease analyzed.ResultsA total of 286 patients who underwent TT placement were included. Recurrent OM (ROM) was the most common diagnosis (42.6%), followed by OM with effusion (OME) plus ROM (ROM + OME) (31.7%) and then OME (25.7%) alone. The mean improvement in the pure tone average (PTA) hearing level was 14.8 dB in patients with OME, 9.5 dB in patients with ROM + OME and 6.3 dB in patients with ROM alone. The hearing improvements in OME and ROM + OME were statistically larger than the ROM group (P ≤ 0.0004). Hearing levels at 500, 1000, 2000 Hz and PTA showed statistically significant improvements in HL after tube placement in each group (P < 0.0001). Of the patients presenting with OME or ROM + OME, 70% had pre-operative findings demonstrating bilateral MEE.ConclusionMost children referred for consideration of surgical management of OM have a diagnosis of ROM, or ROM in conjunction with OME, with only a small percentage having the diagnosis of OME alone. In addition, the majority of children have bilateral disease, suggesting a more severely affected patient population treated by the pediatric otolaryngologist. The results also demonstrate a significant improvement in hearing after the placement of TT. However, the long-term impact of this hearing improvement on a child's development is not known and an additional prospective study of children in this population group is warranted.