PROGNOSIS OF ACUTE OTITIS-MEDIA - FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF RECURRENT ACUTE OTITIS-MEDIA

Clinical factors associated with the development of recurrent acute ot itis media (RAOM) (greater than or equal to 3 recurrences during 6 mon ths' follow-up period) after acute otitis media (AOM) were analysed in 121 children aged 3 months to 7 years (median 2 years 6 months). Afte r AOM, 19 (16%) children had primary recurrence (pre-treatment signs a nd symptoms firstly improved or cured, but worsened or recurred within 30 days' post-treatment) and 33 (27%) developed RAOM during 6 months' follow-up period. It seemed that children < 2 years of age (p = 0.04) , children with bilateral disease (p = 0.007), strong infection status (p = 0.05), primary clinical failure (p = 0.04) and development of pr imary recurrence after AOM (p = 0.001) were significantly related to t he development of RAOM in univariate analysis, but only children < 2 y ears of age (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.0-5.7, p = 0.04) and the development of primary recurrence (OR 5.1, 95% CI 1.8-14.1, p = 0.002) related to the development of RAOM in multivariate analysis. None of the bacteria cu ltured from middle ear effusion were related to the development of RAO M.