Bacteriology of the middle meatus in children

Little is known about the bacteriology of the middle meatus in children. Th erefore, middle meatal samples were obtained from 50 children who underwent adenoidectomy or adenotonsillectomy, while a group of 50 children submitte d to minor non-ENT surgical procedures, were used as a control group. Haemo philus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Streptococcus pneumoniae were the most frequent cultured organisms, not only in the ENT group (in 68, 50 and 60% of the children respectively) bur also in the control group (40, 34 and 50%). These three potential pathogens were more frequently seen among the children of the ENT group but only for H. influenzae was the observed d ifference statistically significant (P = 0.009). On semiquantitative analys is, there seemed to be more negative cultures or cultures with only a few c olonies in the control group, while the richer cultures were obtained from the ENT group. Again, only for H. influenzae, these differences reached a s tatistical significance (P = 0.003). Streptococcus viridans and Neisseria s pecies, both organisms that might be able to inhibit colonisation by some o f the pathogens, were more frequently cultured in the control than in the E NT group: Strep. viridans 30 vs. 10% (P = 0.025) and Neisseria species 14 v s. 2% (P = 0.069). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserv ed.