Risk Factors and Presentations of Acute Otitis Media in the Emergency Department of A Specialized Pediatric Hospital

Background: Acute otitis media (AOM) diagnosis in children had always been a dilemma to
diagnose, as children presentations usually are a combination of non-specific symptoms rather
than an earache. Objectives: to identify the risk factors predisposing to AOM and the
commonest presentations. Methods: Children presented with AOM to our hospital
emergency department of age less than five were included. A thorough literature review was
done to identify the risk and predisposing factors to AOM, data were collected using a data
collection sheet which included the demographic data and the factors gathered from the
literature over six months period between June and December 2015 all of the patients were
presented in our hospital emergency department. Results: 112 children were diagnosed with
AOM. The most frequently encountered risk factors for development of AOM was common
cold (75%, n= 84), followed by crowding (63.1% n=70) and male sex (61.6%, n=69).
Systemic symptoms were noted in the majority patients, fever appears as the commonest
clinical presentation (80.4%, n=90) while convulsion is the least (15.2%, n=17), clear ear
symptoms were not a constant presentation of our patients. It was found that an earache was
statically related to older ages 4-5 years, while fever, irritability, feeding difficulties, and
diarrhea were related to young ages of less than 1 year. Conclusions: the most frequently
encountered risk factors for the development of AOM were a common cold, followed by
crowding, and male sex. The most common clinical presentation among the children have
AOM was fever, while clear ear symptoms were not constant presentations among our
patients.