A Bacteriological Study of Acute Purulent Otitis Media in Children

A bacteriological study was carried out on middle ear discharge in 157 cases of fresh acute purulent otitis media in children. The middle ear discharge was collected with sterile cotton swabs after paracentesis and cultured in chocolate agar medium, sheep blood agar medium and DHL medium. The results were as follows. 1) The most frequent organism found independently was Haemophilus influenzae (32% of 119 strains) and next in frequency was Streptococcus pneumoniae (29%) followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis (16%) and Staphylococcus aureus (8%). Streptococcus pyogenes was found in 3%. 2) The number of mixed isolates were 38 and Staphylococcus epidermidis was found in 74% of these cases. 3) Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae were a very important causative pathogen of acute purulent otitis media. Ampicillin (ABPC) is the antibiotic of choice.