ACUTE otitis media presents one of the most frequent and perplexing infectious disease problems facing the pediatrician. Therapy is usually empirical, since cultures of the nose and throat, when done, reflect the causative agent only imperfectly.1,2 Therefore, the present study was carried out in children with acute otitis media and bulging tympanic membranes in order to determine whether needle aspiration of fluid from the middle ear would provide more direct and reliable information about the causative organisms. The bacteriological results of cultures of the aspirated fluids and comparisons with those of the throat and nasopharynx are presented in this paper. The results of attempts to isolate viruses and Mycoplasma from these aspirated fluids are to be reported separately.3
Patients, Materials, and Methods
A total of 90 children, seen at the Boston City Hospital between July 1964 and April 1965, who presented the clinical features of acute otitis media