The End of an Era in Otitis Research

Retrospective studies carried out in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s suggested an association between otitis media early in life and subsequent developmental impairments in children. Although these studies were not designed to establish a cause-and-effect relationship, many prominent physicians, audiologists, and speech pathologists thought that a cause-and-effect relationship did exist, because severe, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss was known to cause irreversible developmental impairments. Therefore, aggressive intervention to restore normal hearing became the standard of care, and the placement of tympanostomy tubes became the second most frequent surgical procedure performed in the United States (after neonatal circumcision). In July 1994, the . . .