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Review
. 2017 Nov 14;10(1):37.
doi: 10.1186/s40413-017-0168-x. eCollection 2017.

Otitis media with effusion and atopy: is there a causal relationship?

Mario E Zernotti #  1 , Ruby Pawankar #  2 , Ignacio Ansotegui  3 , Hector Badellino  4 , Juan Sebastian Croce  5 , Elham Hossny  6 , Motohiro Ebisawa  7 , Nelson Rosario  8 , Mario Sanchez Borges  9 , Yuan Zhang  10 , Luo Zhang  10
Affiliations
Review

Otitis media with effusion and atopy: is there a causal relationship?

Mario E Zernotti et al. World Allergy Organ J. .

Abstract

Otitis Media with Effusion (OME) is an inflammatory condition of the middle ear cleft, acute or chronic, with collection of fluid in the middle ear with an intact tympanic membrane. It is a very common disease in childhood, the most frequent cause of hearing loss in childhood and often requiring surgery. OME is called chronic when the fluid in the middle ear persists for more than three months or when the episodes recur six or more times in one year. The current article covers various aspects of OME including definition, epidemiology. Pathomechanisms, risk factors, role of allergy in OME, impact of upper airway disease on OME, eosinophilic otitis media and management of OME.

Keywords: Allergy; Infancy; Inflammation; eosinophilic otititis media; OME; Rhinosinusitis; Risk factors.

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Competing interests

The authors reported they have no conflicts of interest regarding this paper.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Pathogenesis of OME. Underlying factors. ET: eustachian tube; ME: middle ear; AOM: acute otitis media; OME: otitis media with effusion
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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