Active and conservative treatment of acute otitis media. Prospective studies.

Two Finnish prospective studies of acute otitis media are reviewed, one consisting of 158 and the other of 248 patients. Treatment with myringotomy in combination with antibiotics gave results which were better than those obtained by antibiotics alone. If the patients had a history of two or more earlier attacks of acute otitis media, healing rates were poorer irrespective of the method of therapy, and treatment without myringotomy could not be adhered to even if planned. Mastoid roentgenograms showed partial or total cloudiness in many ears and proved to be a good method of recognizing the cases in which the disease was likely to run a prolonged course.