The Effect of Short-Term Ventilation Tubes versus Watchful Waiting on Hearing in Young Children with Persistent Otitis Media with Effusion: A Randomized

Objective: To study the effect of short-term ventila-tion tubes in children aged 1 to 2 yr with screening-detected, bilateral otitis media with effusion (OME) persisting for 4 to 6 mo, as compared with watchful waiting. Design: Multi-center randomized controlled trial (N 5 187) with two treatment arms: short-term venti-lation tubes versus watchful waiting. Young chil-dren underwent auditory screening; those with per-sistent (4 to 6 mo) bilateral OME were recruited. Results: The mean duration of effusion over 1-yr follow-up was 142 days (36%) in the ventilation tube (VT) group versus 277 days (70%) in the watchful waiting (WW) group. After 6 mo of follow-up, the pure-tone average in the VT group was 5.6 dB