Loading...
In 2004, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians issued joint guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute otitis media (AOM; JW Pediatr Adolesc Med Apr 26 2004). The widespread use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and the emergence of newer studies prompted these authors to perform an updated meta-analysis of data on AOM. They screened 8945 studies and included 135 in the analysis. This summary focuses on the 55 studies published since 1999.
Studies on diagnosis of AOM are clouded by the lack of a gold standard. Otoscopic findings of bulging or red tympanic membranes and effusions have been associated with accurate diagnosis of AOM (likelihood ratios, 51, 8.4, and 34, respectively). Six…