Acute Mastoiditis in Children – A National Study in Sweden
type: CreativeWork
description: One of the greatest threats to society today is the development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. It is commonly accepted that this is mainly due to the use of antibiotics. Acute otitis media (AOM) is responsible for the highest number of antibiotic prescriptions to children although it is in most cases a self-limiting disease. Nevertheless, complications do occur in some case and the most common complication is acute mastoiditis (AM). Treatment guidelines advocating the restrictive use of antibiotics in uncomplicated AOM have been implemented hoping to slow down the development of resistance to antibiotics. This has led to concerns that an increase of complications will arise. Although AOM is extremely common in early childhood, only 20–60 cases of AM in children are encountered per year in Sweden. In the pre-antibiotic era AM was often lethal and the use of antibiotics has revolutionized the clinical course of severe AOM and AM, radically reducing the rate of complications and mortality. In addition to the new guidelines, in the year 2009, immunisation with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) against the most invasive serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the most common bacteria causing AOM as well as AM, was introduced into the standard immunisation schedule in Sweden. The national study “Mastoiditis in Sweden”, which formed the basis for the research presented in this thesis, gives a good picture of Swedish paediatric patients suffering from AM. The different ways in which AM symptoms are expressed and their development in different age groups are well described in Paper 1. Different surgical methods for treating subperiosteal abscesses were evaluated in Paper 2. It was found that needle aspiration and/or incision to treat SA had no adverse effects when compared to mastoidectomy. Possible effects of the recently introduced immunisation against pneumococci were investigated in the third study (Paper 3). PCV did not offer a complete protection against the…
abstract: One of the greatest threats to society today is the development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. It is commonly accepted that this is mainly due to the use of antibiotics. Acute otitis media (AOM) is responsible for the highest number of antibiotic prescriptions to children although it is in most cases a self-limiting disease. Nevertheless, complications do occur in some case and the most common complication is acute mastoiditis (AM). Treatment guidelines advocating the restrictive use of antibiotics in uncomplicated AOM have been implemented hoping to slow down the development of resistance to antibiotics. This has led to concerns that an increase of complications will arise. Although AOM is extremely common in early childhood, only 20–60 cases of AM in children are encountered per year in Sweden. In the pre-antibiotic era AM was often lethal and the use of antibiotics has revolutionized the clinical course of severe AOM and AM, radically reducing the rate of complications and mortality. In addition to the new guidelines, in the year 2009, immunisation with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) against the most invasive serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the most common bacteria causing AOM as well as AM, was introduced into the standard immunisation schedule in Sweden. The national study “Mastoiditis in Sweden”, which formed the basis for the research presented in this thesis, gives a good picture of Swedish paediatric patients suffering from AM. The different ways in which AM symptoms are expressed and their development in different age groups are well described in Paper 1. Different surgical methods for treating subperiosteal abscesses were evaluated in Paper 2. It was found that needle aspiration and/or incision to treat SA had no adverse effects when compared to mastoidectomy. Possible effects of the recently introduced immunisation against pneumococci were investigated in the third study (Paper 3). PCV did not offer a complete protection against the…
author: Enoksson, Frida
language: eng
keywords: Oto-rhino-laryngology, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, surgical treatment, guidelines, paediatric, acute mastoiditis
date published: 2015
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:59:36Z
provider: University of Lund
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Lund University