Acute otitis media after forceps delivery: Table 1

While running an ambulatory paediatric clinic, the mother of a crying baby wondered whether forceps delivered babies were more prone to otitis than other babies. To our knowledge, this association has not been reported. But, on the other hand, facial nerve injury is more common among those delivered by forceps 1 ; it is caused by compression of diploic bone of the mastoid process where the facial nerve is located superficially. 2 It is clear that this kind of extraction applies some pressure over the ear of the baby. The head vulnerability is well known: long term consequences have been recognised after mild head injury. 3 To estimate the differences of proportion of acute otitis media (AOM) between children delivered by forceps and other babies we conducted an electronic medical records review of all singleton children attending a primary care paediatric clinic, born full term from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2004. Table Sex was comparable, birth weight of non-operative vaginal delivery babies (NO) was lower, vacuum assisted babies (VA) were older at AOM diagnosis, and rates of neonatal admission were not comparable.