Antibiotics Do Little for Inner Ear Infections

(Page 2)

"More research is, however, needed to identify relevant subgroups of children that have middle ear effusion that might benefit from other treatments," Rovers added.

One expert noted that doctors do not routinely prescribe antibiotics to prevent fluid buildup in ear infections.

"To the best of my knowledge, physicians generally don't prescribe antibiotics for acute otitis media in order to prevent middle-ear effusion; they prescribe them to bring about more prompt resolution of the infection and of its symptoms, especially pain," said Dr. Jack Paradise, a professor of pediatrics and otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

The question of prescribing to prevent middle-ear effusion has become a non-issue over the past decade, Paradise said. "Asymptomatic middle-ear effusion is extraordinarily common and has been shown to be essentially harmless under ordinary circumstances," he said.

More information

For more about otitis media, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.