What to expect from medical treatment of otitis media

Abstract

1. To state the expected rates of spontaneous improvement for untreated acute otitis media (AOM), recurrent AOM, and otitis media with effusion (OME). 2. To state the expected impact of antibiotic therapy on AOM, recurrent AOM, and OME in terms of the number of children needed to be treated to cure or prevent a single episode. 3. To explain why oral steroids are a promising, but unproven, treatment for OME. 4. To update and modify expectations for medical treatment of otitis media based on meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.