This is a prospective, cross-sectional study involving 301 patients consisting of farmers, students and employed professionals attending an ENT clinic in Mwanza, Tanzania. Of the 301 patients, 13 were HIV positive; 37.9% had some degree of conductive / sensorineural / mixed hearing loss; 16 required surgical debridement and five underwent mastoidectomy. Pseudomonas spp was the commonest gram negative isolate while Staphylococcus aureas was the commonest isolate amongst gram positive bacteria. Fourteen isolates were identified as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The bacterial growth rate in this study was lower than in previous studies done in other countries and the authors postulate that this could be due to prior use of antibiotics and inability to perform anaerobic culture in the present study. They observed that those with positive HIV status and smokers respond poorly to treatment. They also observed that ignorance, home based treatment, cost of treatment, poverty and poor infrastructure contributed to prolonged duration of illness which contributed to disease complications such as hearing loss. This study adds to the existing literature on the epidemiology of chronic otitis media in the developing world.
CSOM in Mwanza, Tanzania
Reviewed by Gauri Mankekar
Predictors of disease complications and treatment outcome among patients with chronic suppurative otitis media attending a tertiary hospital, Mwanza Tanzania.
CONTRIBUTOR
Gauri Mankekar
Department of Otolaryngology-Head Neck Surgery, Louisiana State University Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.
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