Erythromycin in the treatment of otitis media with effusion (OME).

Previous studies have shown erythromycin to penetrate into both the middle-ear effusion and the adenoid tissue in children with Otitis Media with Effusion (OME). The levels obtained were similar to the plasma levels. Cultures in long-standing cases of OME have yielded respiratory pathogens--Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Branhamella catarrhalis--in the nasopharynx in 79 per cent and in the middle-ear effusion in 18 per cent. In the present investigation a group of children with OME of more than three months' duration were given erythromycin (Abboticin) in standard dosage for the last 10 days prior to scheduled operation (paracentesis or tympanostomy). Resolution was determined as normalization of the middle ear status, and this led to cancellation of surgery. The rate of resolution--12/26 (45 per cent)--was significantly higher than in a similar group of children not treated with erythromycin--11/72 (15 per cent). There are thus rational reasons for using erythromycin in OME, in many cases as an alternative to tympanostomy.