Quality of Life in Pediatric Patients with Serous Otitis Media using the OM6 Questionnaire, Centro Médico Nacional Del Noroeste, Instituto Mexicano Del Seguro Social Sonora, México

Abstract

Serous otitis media is simply the accumulation of fluid in the middle ear without signs and symptoms of ear infection. Asymptomatic serous otitis media can be classified as acute (less than 3 weeks), subacute (3 weeks to 3 months) or chronic (more than 3 months). The term acute or chronic refers to the time course of the disease, not the severity [1]. Serous otitis media is one of the most frequent diseases in the United States with more than 2.2 million cases diagnosed each year, with an annual cost of 4 billion dollars [2]. As many as 90% of children (80% individual ears) will have at least one episode of serous otitis media by the age of 10 years, with the majority of cases occurring between the age of 6 months to 4 years. Many episodes of serous otitis media resolve spontaneously within the first 3 months, but from 30 to 40% of children have recurrent episodes and 5 to 10% will last Abstract