Now Hear This: New treatment for ear infections
The symptoms are all too familiar to most parents - ear pain, night-long crying, fever and irritability. And just when you think you've beaten that ear infection, it's back once again causing your child pain and misery.
Most ear infections can be treated with antibiotics. But chronic ear infections can become resistant to antibiotics and the patient usually has to undergo ear tube surgery for relief.
"The most recent advancement in treatment for ear infections is OtoLAM, or laser assisted myringotomy (drainage of the middle ear)," says Virtua otolaryngologist,
Emilio Roncace, MD. "We perform the procedure right in the office using a computer-driven laser to create an opening in the eardrum. What's best, the patient only needs a topical anesthesia, it only takes a few seconds, it's virtually painless, and it provides immediate pain relief." The hole stays open for several weeks allowing air ventilation in the middle ear and fluid drainage.
Dr. Roncace, who has been practicing in South Jersey for 34 years, notes: "Though OtoLAM does not completely replace ear tube surgery, it significantly decreases the need for it."