Ear tugging, fever, copious discharge and cerumen, difficulty sleeping, as well as TM erythema are the major symptoms of AOM (McCormick et al., 2016). The redness of a TM is the local AOM symptom that may lead to hyperemia – as a result, the TM becomes red, and it can be hard to capture the details of its clinical picture during the otoscopic examination (McCormick et al., 2016). Therefore, the provided data is sufficiently conclusive for AOM diagnosis.
Comparing to AOM, OME is characterized by the accumulation of fluid in the middle ear cavity without the symptoms of acute inflammation. Most often, OME develops on the background of inflammatory diseases of the oral and nasal sinuses or nasopharynx, when the patency of the auditory tube is disturbed (Higgins, 2016). As a result, it creates a negative pressure in the tympanic cavity and provokes the extravasation of initially sterile fluid in it (Higgins, 2016). It may lead to a temporary hearing loss, which can last for a long time and lead to a child’s developmental delay and speech problems.
Treatment should include antipyretics, analgesics, as well as antibiotics in tablets or injections. The expectant management is more suitable for children older than 24 months. The antibiotic treatment of younger patients may help to prevent complications and developmental delays. The first-line antibiotic for the treatment of AOM is the penicillins and cephalosporins (Sacko et al., 2016). First-line drugs are associated with the fewest complications and have a more pronounced activity against the causative agents of otitis media (Sacko et al., 2016).
The environment may be one of the causes of AOM occurrence, and the parents should be instructed regarding the potential risk factors. For instance, the use of pacifiers increases the risk of AOM due to the inflow of bacteria in the Eustachian tube through frequent swallowing (Hounkpatin et al., 2016). Moreover, numerous studies confirm that adult smoking near a child may result in AOM development (Hounkpatin et al., 2016). Similarly, the low life quality that implies the combination of many independent risk factors (smoking, artificial feeding, crowded living conditions) increases the risks of the disease occurrence.
References
Higgins, T. (2016). Otitis Media with Effusion. Web.
Hounkpatin, S. H., Academy, J. D., Flatin, M. C., Awassi, S. F., Afouda, S. L., Avakoudjo, F.,… Vodouhè, S. J. (2016). Risk factors for Acute Otitis Media in children aged 0 to 5 years in Parakou. International Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery JOHNS, 05(2), 73-78. Web.
McCormick, D. P., Jennings, K., Ede, L. C., Alvarez-Fernandez, P., Patel, J., & Chonmaitree, T. (2016). Use of symptoms and risk factors to predict Acute Otitis Media in infants. International Journal Of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 8155-59. Web.
Sacko, H. B., Telly, N., Coulibaly, S., Sanogo, H., Fane, S., Bagayogo, H. D., & Bouare, M. (2016). Congestive Acute Otitis Media of children in Mali with or without antibiotic, place the analgesic?. Online Journal Of Otolaryngology, 6(2), 32-37.