What Doctors Don't Tell YouEarly use of antibiotics provides only modest benefit for acute otitis media, concludes a major meta analysis.
To prevent one child from experiencing pain by two to seven days after leaving the doctor’s surgery, 17 children would need to be treated with antibiotics.
In the study, which supports the conclusions of other research, the authors recommend that antibiotics should be regarded as an “optional treatment” rather than a first line of attack.
For information on ear ache see WDDTY vol 6 nos 2 and 3 and vol 5 no 12; for antibiotics see WDDTY vol 8 no 1.
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
