A new study may help parents who have to decide whether to have their child's ear infection treated with surgery or with medicine.
According to a two-year trial led by UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh pediatric scientists, the tiny tympanostomy tubes that are surgically placed in the ears of of infants and toddlers suffering from ear infections have no long-term benefits over oral antibiotics.
Dr. Alejandro Hoberman is the lead author of the study and director of General Academic Pediatrics told Lynne Hayes-Freeland "We divided them into two groups to get tympanostomy tubes or to be treated for the ear infection at the time of the ear infection and there was no difference. The tubes did not reduce the likelihood of ear infection."
And for the children who were repeatedly treated with antibiotics, he says there was no evidence of increased bacterial resistance.
The trial results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
