The Role of Nasal Allergy in Otitis Media with Effusion

Objective: To evaluate the association of allergy and otitis media with effusion (OME) in children. Design: Case-control. Setting: King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Saudi Arabia. Method: Fifty-two children aged 1 to 15 years with diagnoses of recurrent or persistent secretory otitis media admitted for myringotomy and Grommet insertion from January 2008 to June 2009 (OME group) were included in the study. Children of similar age who attended the pediatric surgical unit during the same period for different pediatric surgical procedures other than ENT surgeries were matched using gender and age (control group). History of allergic rhinitis and results of RAST (radioallergosorbent test) were documented. Result: Fifty-two children had OME, all (100%) had positive history of allergic rhinitis and 31 (81.6%) had RAST positive, the test was performed in 38 children. In the control group, no allergic rhinitis history was obtained and only seven (23%) were RAST positive, the test was performed in 31 children. Conclusion: This study shows that RAST positive is higher in OME group compared to control. In addition, history of allergy is higher in OME group compared to the controls.