Experimental acute otitis media due to nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae: comparison of high and low azithromycin doses with placebo.

Abstract

Treatment of acute otitis media (AOM) with azithromycin results in apparent clinical success, but tympanocentesis performed 4 to 6 days after initiation of therapy in children with nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) recovered from initial middle ear cultures demonstrates persistence of infection in more than 50% of episodes. We sought to determine the effect of azithromycin at different doses on the density of middle ear infection due to NTHI to provide additional understanding of this dichotomy between clinical and microbiologic outcome measures in AOM. In a chinchilla model of experimental otitis media (EOM), animals treated with placebo were compared to animals receiving a single d..