Nasal balloon can help treat glue ear

As many as 200,000 children in the UK alone visit their Global Positioning System with complaints about hearing problems due to “glue ear” and according to researchers doctors can avoid the unnecessary and ineffective use of antibiotics in this case and instead guide their patients to opt for the simple nasal balloon procedure to reduce the impact of hearing loss.

The act increases the pressure in the ear to clear it of sticky mucus.

In most children the problem resolves itself over time, said Dr. Johnna MacCormick, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.

Another issue with the balloon treatment, Rosenfeld pointed out, is that younger children are not able to use it. The peak incidence of OME occurs in patients 12 to 18 months old, but most children aren’t able to use the device until they are at least 3 or 4.

Possible complications of glue ear include ear infections and, where hearing loss is more severe, a minor temporary delay in speech and language development.

Now the kids have a reason to smile because there might be new, non-surgical way to treat the condition, a recent study has suggested that “glue ear” or otitis media with effusion (OME) can be treated by blowing nasal balloons. The balloon then blows air into the middle ear. They also had fewer days with symptoms, the researchers reported.

Researchers tested the “autoinflation” technique on 320 children aged four to 11 from 43 family doctor practices across the United Kingdom.

“Unfortunately, all available medical treatments for otitis media with effusion such as antibiotics, antihistamines, decongestants and intranasal steroids are ineffective and have unwanted effects, and therefore can not be recommended”, wrote Dr Williamson. During the study, the children were then split into two groups, one that was treated with the nasal balloon three times a day, and one that used traditional methods.

The results showed the children receiving auto-inflation were more likely than those in the control group to have normal middle-ear pressure after one month – 47.3% and 35.6%, respectively – and also three months – 49.6% and 38.3%.

Balloon treatment also correlated with improved quality of life scores determined byOMQ-14, a questionnaire that measures outcomes specifically related to glue ear symptoms.

Dr. Williamson and his team concluded that autoinflation is a simple and low-cost procedure that adults can explain to children “in a primary-care setting with a reasonable expectation of compliance”.

The authors of the study note that there are some barriers to implementing non-drug therapies in clinical practice.

“Autoinflation is one of a number of effective nondrug interventions typically underrepresented in research and clinical practice”, they say. Clinicians first have to know about the details of how the treatment works, but they also need to have the proper resources, they noted.Richard Rosenfeld, MD, MPH, director of otolaryngology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., said he occasionally uses the balloons in his practice.