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Coating Myringotomy Tube With Erythromycin Can Thwart Otorrhoea: Presented at ACS
By Jill Stein
CHICAGO -- October 14, 2009 -- Coating a myringotomy tube with antibiotic ointment at the time of surgery can help prevent otorrhoea, according to data released here today at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) 95th Annual Clinical Congress.
Jeremiah Cheng, MD, Kaiser Permanente, Downey, California, and colleagues reviewed the charts of the last 839 consecutive ears that underwent tube surgery at their centre over a recent 2-year period.
Tympanostomy is the most common procedure performed by otolaryngologists, Dr. Cheng said. While otorrhoea is a benign complication of tympanostomy, it is the most common complication of this procedure, occurring at a rate of 2% to 17%.
The prevention of otorrhoea is extremely important given that postoperative otorrhoea may evolve into chronic suppurative otitis media and a diseased middle ear state, he added.
The review included only surgical procedures using 7 mm fluoroplastic tubes. During the surgery, the tube was either coated with no ointment or with erythromycin or with ofloxacin. The ears were examined for signs of otorrhoea at 1 week after surgery.
Of the 368 ears that that had no ointment during the operation, 24 (6.5%) ears developed otorrhoea within 1 week.
Of the 300 ears that had erythromycin ointment, 7 ears developed post-myringotomy tube otorrhoea within 1 week, for an incidence of 2.3%.
Of the 171 ears that were treated with ofloxacin, 4 (2.3%) developed otorrhoea.
The results of no ointment versus erythromycin were significant (P = .01). The results of no ointment versus ofloxacin were also significant (P = .01).
"Overall, the results indicate that treatment with erythromycin ophthalmic ointment or ofloxacin drops was more successful in preventing otorrhoea than no drops," Dr. Cheng said.
[Presentation title: Preventing Myringotomy Tube Otorrhea. Abstract SE131-W]
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