Children with recurrent episodes of acute otitis media: the effect of local administration of immunoglobulin G on acute otitis media, colonization and turnover of non-encapsulated Haemophilus influenzae in the nasopharynx.

Abstract

In most children with recurrent episodes of acute otitis media (AOM), tube treatment is successful, but there are those who nevertheless suffer from middle ear infections. The aim of the present study was to ascertain whether local administration of immunoglobulin could reduce the number of episodes of otorrhoea in otitis-prone infants <2 years old who were treated with tubes, or whether it could affect the nasopharyngeal colonization and turnover of bacterial pathogens in the nasopharynx. IgG or placebo were also administered intranasally daily for 6 months to 50 infants, randomized in a double-blind study. An arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) was used to characterize the different isolates of NTHI (non-encapsulated, non-typable Haemophilus influenzae). Three infants in the IgG group and six infants in the control group suffered from > or =3 episodes of acute otitis media. No effect on the nasopharyngeal colonization or the turnover of non-encapsulated H. influenzae in the nasopharynx could be detected in either group.