Draining ears in acute otitis media: reliability of culture.

The purulent exudates in the ear canal of 69 children who presented with acute otorrhea were cultured directly onto standard media. No effort was made to either suction out the exudate lying in the canal or to use antiseptic agents on the canal wall. Potential pathogens such as H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae and S. pyogenous were recovered from two-thirds of the patients who suffered spontaneous otorrhea. Reliable cultures can be obtained from such patients provided the cultures are plated expeditiously on solid agar.