This is an excerpt of an article originally published on Evidently Cochrane. Martin Burton, Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, writes for parents and carers about the latest evidence on treatments for ear discharge in children with grommets.
Children have grommets (ventilation tubes) put in their ears for two main reasons. Either because they have persistent “glue ear” or frequent ear infections. There is a general feeling amongst specialists that grommets don’t usually cause much trouble. If you ask them to estimate how many children will have an episode of discharge – liquid (sometimes smelly but not always) leaking out of the ear – they are likely to reply “not many”. Is this true? Or do the specialists based in hospitals just not hear about children being taken to their GPs with leaking ears, and so are unaware of it. Whilst GPs, on the other hand, are only too well aware that this happens quite often.