Using antibiotics to treat children’s ear infections is only slightly more effective than no treatment at all, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
After a systematic review of published data from 1999 to 2010 regarding medical treatment of acute ear infections among children, researchers at the University of California found that prescribing antibiotics early for acute ear infections had only a modest benefit.
Of 100 average-risk children with acute ear infections, about 80 would be expected to get better within about three days without antibiotics.
If all were treated with antibiotics immediately at diagnosis, evidence suggests an additional 12 would improve, but three to 10 children would suffer side effects such as skin rash and diarrhea.
Researchers found one major limitation to improving treatment was that there was no one definitive test to diagnose an ear infection. They recommended using an otoscope to examine the ear for signs of infection as a key component of accurate diagnosis.
The study also found no benefit to using more expensive name-brand antibiotics to treat uncomplicated acute ear infections in normal-risk children, and recommended the more commonly-used amoxicillin.