Bacterial isolates in chronic suppurative otitis media: a changing pattern?

The most frequently isolated organism in chronic suppurative otitis media from different parts of the world is Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The pattern from this bacteriological study from our region is different. This study was carried out on 97 patients presenting to the outpatient clinic of the National Ear Care Center, Kaduna. Nigeria from May 2008 to April 2009. The patients were aged between 1 year and 75 years comprising 50) males and 47 females giving a male to female ratio of 1:1. Most of the patients (n=40, 41.2%) were in the age group 1-10) years. Seventy-five (77.3%) patients had a positive culture while in 22 (22.7%) patients there was no growth. Gram-negative bacteria comprised 80% of the isolates. The predominant organisms cultured were Klebsiella sp (n=31, 41.3%), Escherichia coli (n=22, 29.3%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=6, 8%). The gram-positive isolates were Streptococcus sp (n=8, 10.8%) and Staphylococcus aureus (n=7, 9.3%). In-vitro drug sensitivity pattern of all isolates shows that they were more sensitive to Ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and Perfloxacin. Klebsiella sp. Escherichia coli and Streptococcus sp. are the leading pathogenic organisms in chronic suppurative otitis media in our region and their ensitivity rates are highest to the quinolone antibiotics, which are relatively cheap, readily available as ototopic agents and lack ototoxic effects.