A comparison of the effectiveness of pharmacologic treatment of otitis media with effusion in children: integrative and meta-analysis.

The treatment of otitis media with effusion is controversial and has inconsistent variations of pharmacotherapeutic practices. Current pharmacologic practices include use of antibiotics, antihistamine and/or decongestants, or a combination of antibiotics with antihistamine and/or decongestants. The effectiveness of these treatment protocols was examined through an integrative and meta-analysis of published research. Data was collected from research published over a 17 year period from 1980 to 1997. The hypothesis is that children, ages three months to 12 years, with otitis media with effusion who are untreated will demonstrate successful resolution of effusion equal to those treated with pharmacologic agents (P < 0.05). The integrative and meta-analytic results reject this hypothesis, as pharmacologic treatment is statistically significant in its resolution when compared to no treatment (P=0.0017). However, there is a weak effect size (R=0.07).