Systemic antibiotics for treatment of the conjunctivitis-otitis media syndrome.

In a private pediatric practice setting 114 episodes of conjunctivitis-otitis syndrome were treated with orally administered antibiotics. In 108 (95%) of these infections Haemophilus influenzae was isolated from the pretreatment cultures of the conjunctivae; 61 were susceptible and 47 (44%) were resistant to ampicillin by a disc diffusion technique. Six cultures grew Streptococcus pneumoniae, all ampicillin-susceptible. Symptoms of conjunctivitis disappeared in 2 to 3 days in all but one patient. Of the 48 follow-up conjunctival cultures 3 to 5 days after start of therapy, 46 grew no pathogens.