Strategies for decreasing multidrug antibiotic resistance: role of ototopical agents for treatment of middle ear infections.

Change in the susceptibility of bacterial pathogens to antimicrobial agents is constant. The efficacy of a new drug may change as it is used in clinical settings, and resistant bacterial clones result from the encounter of drug and organism. Soon after the introduction of the sulfonamides in the mid-1930s, the first effective agents of the antimicrobial era, resistance of pneumococci and group A streptococci was evident. In each of the following decades, a different problem in multidrug resistance occurred among common bacterial pathogens: beta-lactamase-producing staphylococci in the 1950s; highly resistant gram-negative enteric bacteria in the 1960s; beta-lactamase-producing Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis in the 1970s; and multidrug-resistant pneumococci in the 1980s. Antimicrobial resistance among respiratory pathogens is now a common clinical problem throughout the world, and its management is a part of routine office practice. Currently in the United States, about 25% of pneumococci are resistant to penicillin, and 25% of H influenzae and 90% of M catarrhalis produce beta-lactamase and would be inactivated by organisms producing the enzyme. The emergence of penicillin and multidrug-resistant pneumococci and beta-lactamase-producing strains of H influenzae and M catarrhalis have special importance for the management of infections of the middle ear. The widespread use of oral and parenteral antimicrobial drugs for appropriate and inappropriate uses has driven the emergence and spread of resistant organisms. This article discusses current susceptibility patterns of organisms involved in middle ear infections, risk factors associated with development of resistant strains, strategies for limiting the incidence and spread of resistant organisms and, as part of the strategy, use of ototopical rather than systemic antimicrobial drugs for chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) and acute otitis media (AOM) in children with tympanostomy tubes. Although many ototopical agents are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the indication of otitis externa, only ofloxacin otic is approved for treatment of CSOM in patients older than 12 years of age and AOM in children with tympanostomy tubes who are 1 year of age or older.