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ENT/Otolaryngology
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Long-running Rar Study Finds Delayed Insertion of Ear Tubes Does Not Affect Development in Children Ages 9 to 11
Early insertion of ear tubes in otherwise healthy infants and young children with persistent fluid in the middle ear does not improve developmental outcomes up to 9 to 11 years of age, according to results of a Children’s study led by Jack Paradise, MD.
These findings strongly suggest that no intervention is necessary for most children with fluid in their ears. Results of the study were published in the Jan. 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Paradise and colleagues have conducted a longitudinal study of 6,350 children enrolled before the age of 2 months between 1991 and 1995. Among the group of those children who developed persistent middle ear fluid before the age of 3 years, the researchers found no evidence that prompt insertion of ear tubes improves developmental outcomes compared with delayed insertion if the fluid eventually fails to clear up spontaneously. This finding reverses a decades-old belief held by many in the medical community that fluid in the middle ear may lead to developmental impairment.
Watchful Waiting vs. Antibiotics for the Treatment of Ear Infections
At Children’s, a team of researchers led by Alejandro Hoberman, MD, is beginning a National Institutes of Health-funded study of about 300 children to further test the watchful waiting vs. antibiotics treatment strategies for ear infections, the most common childhood illness.
Dr. Hoberman also is leading national efforts to help physicians more accurately diagnose the severity of the ear infections so the most appropriate course of action can be taken. Doctors can tell if an ear is infected by looking into the ear canal for redness or inflammation. But that observation isn’t always accurate, and in many cases antibiotics are unnecessarily prescribed, according to Dr. Hoberman.
