Leave Those Ears Alone

Brian Bartholomew - Friday, December 09, 2011

Leave Those Ears Alone

In the 1950s, kids routinely got their tonsils taken out. Then physicians such as Dr. Jack L. Paradise of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine showed that the procedure brought no benefits to most children.

In a study published last August, Paradise took on another common treatment: implanting tubes to drain the fluid in children's ears -- thought to hamper hearing and slow language development. Children with fluid do tend to have more speech problems. But Paradise believes the two conditions have a common cause: poor living conditions. "Medicine is fraught with error when people assume correlation is causality," he says.

So Paradise did a study of 6,000 babies. By age three, 429 had persistent fluid in their ears. Half got ear tubes, the other half didn't -- and there was no difference in outcomes between the two groups.

Paradise's advice to parents of such kids: "Don't just do something. Sit there." Many doctors still perform the surgery, however. "People are reluctant to believe our results," Paradise says. Why? "You get paid for operating and not paid for not operating."

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Problems with Ear Tube Surgery

Brian Bartholomew - Friday, December 09, 2011

Problems with ear tube surgery:

Ear tube surgery does not provide a real “solution” for ear infection treatment. It merely bypasses the problem of dysfunctional Eustachian tubes and middle ear ventilation by surgically making a temporary opening in the eardrum. An effective middle ear infection treatment should restore the normal function of the Eustachian tubes.
Making an incision in the eardrum exposes the middle ear to outer infections, such as bacteria and viruses.
In cases where the middle ear gets infected, the ear secretes pus (since the tube drain out fluids immediately). This condition may last for many weeks (or months) causing a great deal of discomfort.
Ear tube surgery is performed under general anesthesia – albeit short (about 15 minutes), it is clear that general anesthesia is accompanied by potential complications. Chance of significant complications due to surgery under general anesthesia is less than – 0.5% but it always exists.
It is important to remember that the doctor recommending undergoing ear tube surgery makes “a living” out of the procedure and a tendency towards surgery due to his professional training, thus the medical advice received in this case may be with clear preference toward surgery, even though it’s not necessarily the most effective treatment. We recommend surgeons to recommend the use of eardoc for at least two weeks prior surgery

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Ear Tube Surgery Ineffective, Study Says

Brian Bartholomew - Friday, December 09, 2011

Kid's Ear Tubes Ineffective, Study Says

Posted by Karen Murphy

A new study published on Jan. 18 in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that the routine insertion of tubes in the ears of otherwise healthy children has no effect on development through age 11. In children with excess fluid in their ears, the insertion of tubes (tympanostomy) to drain the fluid and improve hearing is one of the most common pediatric operations and has been generally believed to help prevent developmental problems. Not so, reports the study.

429 children younger than 2 months with persistent episodes of fluid in the middle ear were studied. They were randomly assigned in a clinical trial to undergo tympanostomy either right away or six to nine months later. In addition, a second roup of children were studied, also having persistant fluid in the ear but who did not receive the ear tubes. It was found that there was no significant difference between the children who received early tube placement and those who received later placement in terms of hearing, speech and academic skills. There also was no significant correlation in the second group between developmental achievement and periodic episodes of fluid in the ears.

In other words, those tubes? They be doing nobody any good. Unless, of course, there is a history of acute infection. but for fluid and nothing but fluid? The new recommendation based on the study is to wait a year and see.

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Ear Infections & Chiropractic Care

Brian Bartholomew - Sunday, June 12, 2011

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Chiropractic Helping Children With Ear Infections

Brian Bartholomew - Sunday, May 29, 2011

Chiropractic Helping Children with Ear Infections

Chiropractic Approach to Ear Infections

Ear problems can be excruciatingly painful, especially in children. With 10 million new cases every year, ear infections (otitis media) are the most common illness affecting babies and young children and the number one reason for visits to the pediatrician—accounting for more than 35 percent of all pediatric visits.

Almost half of all children will have at least one middle ear infection before they're a year old, and two-thirds of them will have had at least one such infection by age 3. The symptoms can include ear pain, fever, and irritability. Otitis media can be either bacterial or viral in origin, and frequently results from another illness such as a cold. For many children, it can become a chronic problem, requiring treatment year after year, and putting the child at risk of permanent hearing damage and associated speech and developmental problems.

Standard treatment for most cases of otitis media is with antibiotics, which can be effective if the culprit is bacterial (antibiotics, of course, do nothing to fight off viruses). But, according to many research studies, antibiotics are often not much more effective than the body's own immune system. And repeated doses of antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant bacteria that scoff at the drugs, while leaving the child screaming in pain.

Frequent ear infections are also the second most common reason for surgery in children under 2 (with circumcision being the first). In severe cases—for example, when fluids from an ear infection haven't cleared from the ear after several months, and hearing is affected—specialists sometimes prescribe myringotomy and tympanostomy, more commonly known as "ear tubes." During the surgical procedure, a small opening is made in the eardrum to place a tube inside. The tube relieves pressure in the ear and prevents repeated fluid buildup with the continuous venting of fresh air. In most cases, the membrane pushes the tube out after a couple of months and the hole in the eardrum closes. Although the treatment is effective, it has to be repeated in some 20 to 30 percent of cases. And this kind of surgery requires general anesthesia, never a minor thing in a small child. If the infection persists even after tube placement and removal, children sometimes undergo adenoidectomy (surgical removal of the adenoids)—an option that is effective mostly through the first year after surgery.

Before yet another round of "maybe-they'll-work-and-maybe-they-won't" antibiotics or the drastic step of surgery, more parents are considering chiropractic to help children with chronic ear infections. Dr. Joan Fallon, a chiropractor who practices in Yonkers, New York, has published research showing that, after receiving a series of chiropractic adjustments, nearly 80 percent of the children treated were free of ear infections for at least the six-month period following their initial visits (a period that also included maintenance treatments every four to six weeks).

"Chiropractic mobilizes drainage of the ear in children, and if they can continue to drain without a buildup of fluid and subsequent infection, they build up their own antibodies and recover more quickly," explains Dr. Fallon. She'd like to see her pilot study used as a basis for larger-scale trials of chiropractic as a therapeutic modality for otitis media.

Dr. Fallon uses primarily upper-cervical manipulation on children with otitis media, focusing particularly on the occiput, or back of the skull, and atlas, or the first vertebra in the neck. "Adjusting the occiput, in particular, will get the middle ear to drain. Depending on how chronic it's been and on where they are in their cycle of antibiotics, children generally need to get through one bout of fluid and fight it off themselves." That means, for the average child, between six and eight treatments. If a child's case is acute, Dr. Fallon will check the ear every day, using a tympanogram to measure the ear and track the movement of the eardrum to make sure that it's draining. "I'll do adjustments every day or every other day for a couple of days if they're acute, and then decrease frequency over time."

Dr. Fallon, whose research garnered her the acclaim of childrearing magazines like Parenting and Baby Talk, often sees great success when she treats a child for otitis media. "Once they fight it themselves, my kids tend to do very well and stay away from ear infections completely. Unless there are environmental factors like smoking in the house, an abnormally shaped Eustachian tube, or something like that, they do very well," she says.

"I have two large pediatric groups that refer to me on a regular basis. In the winter, when otitis is most prevalent, I see five or six new children each week from each group," says Dr. Fallon. "It's safe and effective and something that parents should try, certainly before inserting tubes in their children's ears."

Chiropractic Care Can Help...
Talk to your doctor of chiropractic about your child's ear infections. Doctors of chiropractic are licensed and trained to diagnose and treat patients of all ages and will use a gentler type of treatment for children.

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