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Meta-Analysis
. 2024 Oct;134(10):4176-4185.
doi: 10.1002/lary.31456. Epub 2024 Apr 26.

Quality of Life Outcomes After Pediatric Otitis Media Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Doreen Lam  1 , Alex Fahmy  2 , Alisa Timashpolsky  3 , Neel Sangal  4 , Ganesh Chandrasekaran  5 , Melanie Cedrone  6 , Kavita Dedhia  4   7
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Quality of Life Outcomes After Pediatric Otitis Media Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Doreen Lam et al. Laryngoscope. 2024 Oct.

Abstract

Objectives: Systematically review of literature characterizing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) impact of surgery in pediatric otitis media (OM) patients, and meta-analysis of studies using the OM-6 questionnaire.

Data sources: Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Scopus.

Review methods: A systematic review of literature of studies evaluating HRQoL outcomes for OM patients managed by surgery. Two investigators independently reviewed abstracts and full-length articles. Risk of bias was assessed using the MINORS criteria and Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool.

Results: The search yielded 1272 studies, 50 underwent full-text review and 23 met inclusion criteria. Non-randomized studies were of moderate to good quality, while randomized trials had a high risk of bias. Age ranged from 6 months to 15 years. Race and socioeconomic factors were inconsistently reported. There were 11 HRQoL outcome measure instruments of which four were disease-specific. Eleven studies used OM-6 and nine were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled analysis of five studies showed a mean OM-6 change of 1.79 (95% CI: 1.53-2.06; 95% PI: 0.92-2.67; I2 = 68%) 4-6 weeks after surgery; a mean change of 1.87 (95% CI: 1.15-2.58; 98%) after 6 months across two studies; and a mean change of 1.64 (1.02 to 2.27; -6.35 to 9.64; 98%) after 9-13 months across three studies.

Conclusions: There is no consistency in HRQoL instruments used to evaluate pediatric OM surgery outcomes in current literature with few RCTs. Meta-analysis showed a clinically significant large improvement in HRQoL 4-6 weeks after tympanostomy tube placement.

Level of evidence: N/A Laryngoscope, 134:4176-4185, 2024.

Keywords: health‐related quality of life; otitis media; pediatrics; quality of life; tympanostomy tubes.

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References

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