Etiology and therapy of chronic suppurative otitis

Infectious diseases of the ear are important in adults due to their incidence and relapses. We carried out a study of aerobic microorganisms on 251 otic exudates from patients diagnosed as having chronic suppurative otitis media without cholesteatoma (119), chronic suppurative otitis media with cholesteatoma (85) and chronic external otitis (47). The microorganisms predominantly isolated were, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and other Enterobacteriaceae. 86% of isolates were monomicrobial and 14% of isolates were polymicrobial. In these latter the predominantly isolated microorganisms were also P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, Corynebacterium spp. and Proteus mirabilis. P. aeruginosa was the most commonly isolated and showed the highest percentages of resistance against antimicrobial agents tested. P. aeruginosa was most susceptible to ciprofloxacin and imipenem, but much less susceptible to cefotaxime, moxalactam and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. S. aureus was highly sensitive to amoxicillin/clavulanate, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, rifampin and teichoplanin. 100% of the isolates were resistant to penicillin G and ampicillin.