Microbiology in serous otitis media.

It is now established that serous otitis media (SOM) is an inflammatory reaction of the mucosa of the middle ear. A number of microbiological factors are contributory causes. It is clear, among other things, that the microbiologic environment in the nasopharynx in SOM is the same as that in acute otitis media. Neither adenoidectomy and tonsillectomy nor treatiment with conventional chemotherapeutics has proved effective for eradicating pathogenic bacteria from the nasopharynx. Intense research to find new antibiotics and effective means may be one way of getting us out of our present therapeutic dilemma. Other possibilities are to try to produce polyvalent bacterial vaccines and to increase our knowledge of the immunology of the nasopharynx.