Bacteriological study in acute otitis media

: A retrospective study was conducted of 587 bacteriological samples collected from 387 children with acute otitis media treated as outpatients over a period of 30 months, to determine relative frequency of the causative germs and their resistance to antibiotics. The most frequently involved bacteria were staphylococci (16 p.cent) of which 70 p.cent were Staph. Epidermidis, and Haemophilus (17 p.cent), resistance to ampicillin being present in 19 p.cent. These results, which differ from those in the published literature, suggest that paracentesis with systematic bacteriological typing is the treatment of choice in acute otitis media.