Tympanometry in children with treated acute otitis media.

Tympanometry was used to identify middle-ear changes in 154 children with otitis media during and after treatment in general practice. In two hundred and nineteen episodes, 242 infected and 196 non-infected ears were examined. The results suggest that chronic serous otitis media or "glue ear" is not a consequence of acute otitis media; that persistence of middle-ear effusion is unlikely to predispose to recurrent acute otitis media; and that in unilateral otitis media abnormalities are often present in both ears.