Purulent otitis media--a "silent" source of sepsis in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Septicemia is common in patients in the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) who have nasotracheal tubes. Although it is frequently caused by middle ear effusion (MEE), pneumatic otoscopy is not routinely performed in these patients. To demonstrate the value of this procedure, 46 pediatric ICU patients with nasotracheal tubes were followed daily with pneumatic otoscopy for 11 to 98 days and compared with 25 controls without nasotracheal tubes, 12 of whom had nasogastric tubes. Myringotomy was performed whenever blood culture became positive. MEE was significantly more frequent in patients with nasotracheal tubes (87%) than in patients with controls (23%) and occurred first on the side of intubation. Blood bacteria were identical to middle ear pathogens in 80% of patients. Nasogastric tubes were not significant in causing MEE. The high incidence of MEE resulting from nasotracheal intubation indicates the importance of including pneumatic otoscopy in the daily examination of these high-risk patients.