The weeping ear: clinical re-evaluation of treatment

This study was designed to compare the efficacy and safety of gentamicin otic solution versus colistin-neomycin-hydrocortisone otic suspension in the treatment of otorrhoea due to infection. Fifty-five patients (mean age 36.6 +/- 22.1 years) with sixty infected ears with otorrhoea complicating otitis externa, recurrent otitis media with tympanic membrane perforation, or infected mastoid cavities and post-operative tympanoplasties, were treated for 14 days with either an aqueous solution of gentamicin 0.3% or an aqueous suspension of colistin 0.3%, neomycin 0.33% and hydrocortisone 1.0%. The two possible treatments were assigned randomly and the results were assessed double-blind using usual ordinal scales for monitoring the severity of symptoms. Both otic preparations were found to be equally safe in the treatment of otorrhoea due to infection. No side-effects were observed and hearing status was either unchanged or improved. The antibiotic-steroid combination appeared to be more effective in relieving inflammation in a shorter period of time while gentamicin was observed to be more effective in eradicating the infecting organisms.