© 2001 Evidence-Based Nursing
Treatment
Delayed prescribing of antibiotics increased duration of acute otitis media symptoms in children but reduced diarrhoea
Little P, Gould C, Williamson I, et al. Pragmatic randomised controlled trial of two prescribing strategies for childhood acute otitis media.BMJ 2001 Feb 10;322:336–42
QUESTION: Is a delayed (72 hour "wait and see") prescribing strategy for antibiotics as effective as standard immediate prescribing for children with acute otitis media (AOM)?
Randomised (unclear allocation concealment), unblinded, controlled trial with about 1 week of follow up.
General practices in south west UK.
315 children aged 6 months to 10 years (59% >3 y) who had acute otalgia and otoscopic evidence of acute inflammation of the ear drum. Exclusion criteria were otoscopic appearances consistent with crying or fever alone (pink ear drum only), appearances more suggestive of OM with effusion and chronic suppurative OM, serious chronic disease, use of antibiotics for ear infections in the previous 2 weeks, previous complications, or if the child was too unwell to be left to wait and see. 285 children (90%) were included in the analysis.
All patients were prescribed amoxicillin syrup, 125 mg in 5 ml, 3 times daily, 100 ml in total, except for patients allergic to penicillin who were prescribed erythromycin, 125 mg in 5 ml, 4 times daily for 1 week. 164 children
School of Nursing and Health Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
