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Tamara Chris Valerie Veselinovic Brennan-Jones Swift BSc(Hons) MClinAud PhD PhD Clinical Research Fellow Head, Ear and Hearing Health Aboriginal
Otitis media has a high prevalence in childhood, and grommet insertion is the most common surgical treatment for OM. The public health system in Australia faces considerable strains, including high demand for Ear, Nose and Throat specialists. Extending the scope of practice for audiologists to manage post-operative care for children receiving grommets has the potential to alleviate this burden.
Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy are two of the most commonly performed ENT procedures in children, with over 500,000 cases performed annually in the United States. Whilst generally considered a safe and well-tolerated operation, it is not without its risks and complications including pain, nausea, anorexia and most importantly bleeding and post-tonsillectomy haemorrhage.
We investigated the suggestion that otitis-prone children have an impaired antibody response in the context of pneumococcal vaccination.
Reviewed in this article these studies have identified positive association at 21 genes with association at five of these replicated in independent populations.
Vaccines including conserved antigens from Streptococcus pneumoniae & nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae have the potential to reduce of otitis media.
Otitis media (OM) is a common childhood disease characterised by middle ear inflammation following infection
In Australia the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) is administered at 2, 4 and 6 months of age, with no booster dose.
Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae is associated with otitis media
One third of children require repeat ventilation tube insertion (VTI) for otitis media. Disease recurrence is associated with persistent middle ear bacterial biofilms. With demonstration that Dornase alfa (a DNase) disrupts middle ear effusion biofilms ex vivo, we identified potential for this as an anti-biofilm therapy to prevent repeat VTI. First, safety and tolerability needed to be measured.