Respiratory virus infection as a cause of prolonged symptoms in acute otitis media

We studied respiratory viruses in 22 children with acute otitis media who had failed to improve after at least 48 hours of antimicrobial therapy. The mean duration of preenrollment antimicrobial therapy was 4.8 days. For comparison we studied 66 children with newly diagnosed acute otitis media. Respiratory viruses were isolated from middle ear fluid or from the nasopharynx, or both, significantly more often in the patients unresponsive to initial antimicrobial therapy than in the comparison patients (68% vs 41%, p less than 0.05). Viruses were recovered from the middle ear fluid in 32% of the study patients and from 15% of the comparison group. Bacteria were isolated from the middle ear fluid of four (18%) children in the study group; one child had an isolate resistant to initial antimicrobial therapy. All four children with bacteria in the middle ear fluid had evidence of concomitant respiratory virus infection. Our results indicate that respiratory virus infection is often present in patients with acute otitis media unresponsive to initial antimicrobial therapy, and may explain the prolongation of symptoms of infection. Resistant bacteria seem to be a less common cause of failure of the initial treatment.