In a nationwide retrospective review from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, sponsored by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Mamaker (2015) reports that there were more than 388 million Emergency Department (ED) visits between 2009 and 2011. Of those, approximately 8.5 million (2.2 percent) ED visits were attributed to a primary otological issue. Of the patients seen for a primary otological complaint, roughly two-thirds were 17 years old or younger, and the majority of patients with an otological complaint were treated and released.
Aarhus et al (2015) report some 33,000 children were tested through pure-tone audiometry in Norway, and re-tested between ages 20 to 56 years. Of those 33,000 children, 3,066 children were reported to have hearing loss. Of note, otitis media with effusion (OME) was diagnosed in 1,255 children, chronic supparative otitis media (CSOM) was diagnosed in 108, and recurrent acute otitis media (rAOM) was diagnosed in 613 children.
