Trends in the Resistance Pattern of Bacterial Pathogens of Otitis Media in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Otitis media, an inflammation of the middle ear, is a common illness in childhood, and also one of the most frequent reasons for outpatient antimicrobial therapy. This study was undertaken to determine the bacterial etiology of otitis media in our environment and their pattern of antibiotic susceptibility. Between November 2009 and March 2011, ear swabs collected from 132 patients with clinical diagnosis of acute otitis media and chronic suppurative otitis media were subjected to bacteriological analysis. The bacterial pathogens isolated were tested against ten antibiotics using standard bacteriologic techniques. A total of 142 isolates were recovered from the 132 patients involved in this study. The most frequently isolated organism in acute otitis media and chronic suppurative otitis media was Pseudomonas aeruginosa, (43.7%), followed by Klebsiella species (31.0%), Proteus species (14.1%), Escherichia coli (7%), H.influenzae (2.8%) and Staphylococcus aureus (1.4%). Generally, high resistance rates were recorded against many of the antibiotics tested. However, ciprofloxacin demonstrated the highest susceptibility rates for P.aeruginosa (77.4%) and Klebsiella species (59.1%).All the pathogens demonstrated nil susceptibility towards cefixime except E.coli where the susceptibility rate was 40%.In conclusion, determination of the susceptibility pattern of bacterial pathogens of otitis media is of utmost importance to its effective management.