ETIOLOGY AND THERAPY OF CHRONIC SUPPURATIVE OTITIS

Infectious diseases of the ear are important in adults due to their in cidence and relapses. We carried out a study of aerobic microorganisms on 251 otic exudates from patients diagnosed as having chronic suppur ative otitis media without cholesteatoma (119), chronic suppurative ot itis media with cholesteatoma (85) and chronic external otitis (47). T he microorganisms predominantly isolated were, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and other Enterobacteriaceae. 86% of isolates w ere monomicrobial and 14% of isolates were polymicrobial. In these lat ter the predominantly isolated microorganisms were also P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, Corynebacterium spp, and Proteus mirabilis. P. aeruginosa was the most commonly isolated and showed the highest percentages of r esistance against antimicrobial agents tested. P. aeruginosa was most susceptible to ciprofloxacin and imipenem, but much less susceptible t o cefotaxime, moxalactam and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. S. aureus was highly sensitive to amoxillin/clavulanate, trimethoprim-sulfametho xazole, rifampin and teichoplanin. 100% of the isolates were resistant to penicillin G and ampicillin.