A DOUBLE-BLIND COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF OFLOXACIN OTIC DROPS VERSUS NEOMYCIN-POLYMYXIN B-HYDROCORTISONE OTIC DROPS IN THE MEDICAL-TREATMENT OF CHRONIC SUPPURATIVE OTITIS-MEDIA

Active chronic suppurative otitis media poses a management problem whe n patients are being considered for surgical treatment. Topical antibi otics have demonstrated varying degrees of success in the management o f discharging ears. The introduction of quinolones has revived interes t in these topical agents. This double-blind study compares two antibi otics, namely ofloxacin and neomycin-polymyxin B, with similar in vitr o sensitivities to Gram positive and Gram negative organisms. Fifty-tw o patients were selected randomly and the results show that ofloxacin eardrops have marginal benefits in symptomatic improvement (89 per cen t versus 79 per cent, p = 0.27) and bacterial eradication (81 per cent versus 75 per cent, p = 0.81) in active chronic suppurative otitis me dia. Significantly fewer patients (seven per cent versus 29 per cent, p = 0.04) in the ofloxacin group had active disease at the end of the two-week treatment. We recommend the use of ofloxacin eardrops in mana ging active chronic suppurative otitis media since it has high clinica l efficacy, contains no steroid component and has no demonstrated risk of ototoxicity.