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Ear Tubes not helpful on improving Cognitive, Language, or Speech

Putting ear tubes or tympanostomy tubes in children with frequent ear infection has no favorable impact on cognition, language, or speech at age 4. This is the conclusion of Jack Paradise, MD of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

The researchers from Pittsburgh studied 6,350 children younger than 2 months old for the study and followed them till four years old. Children were eligible for surgery (ear tube placement) if they developed persistent one sided ear fluid (effusion) for 135 days or both ear fluid for 90 days despite treatment with antibiotics.

Four hundred and twenty nine children met the criteria for ear tube placement. They were assigned randomly to an early treatment group or delayed treatment group if ear fluid persisted (six monthls later for persistent fluid in both ears, nine months later for those with one sided ear fluid.) Of the 429 children 397 (92.5%) were tested at 4 years old. Researchers tested them for language, speech, and cognition.

At 4 years old, there were no statistically difference between children in the early treatment group and those in the late treatment group in scores on test of cognition, language, speech, or in parent ratings of parent-child stree and behavior.

[Reference: Infectious Diseases in Children, November 2002, page 47; New England Journal of Medicine, 2001;344(16):1179-1187, Paradise JL, “Effect of early or delayed insertion of tympanostomy tubes for persistent otitis media on development outcomes at the age of three year.]

Comment: If your child has three or four ear infections in one year, discuss with your clinicians ways of reducing recurrent ear infections. A common risks of ear infection is being exposed to smokers and allergy.

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Leo Leonidas, MD, FAAP, Assistant Clinical Professor in Pediatrics, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston; Attending Pediatrician, Eastern Maine Medical Center, Bangor, Maine

Please send my your suggestions and comments to improve this site:

lleonidas@pcpediatrics.org

I wrote and desinged this website for parents of our practice. Before you use ideas from this website, please discuss it first with your clinician if you are not with our practice.

copyright Leo Leonidas 2002

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