THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PATHOGENESIS OF OTITIS MEDIA WITH EFFUSION AND HELICOBACTER PYLORI IN CHILDREN: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

AN ALTERNATIVE ETIOPATHOGENESIS FOR OTITIS MEDIA WITH EFFUSION

Abstract

Objective: To discuss the role of Helicobacter pylori (HP) in the pathogenesis of otitis media with effusion (OME) in children in an integrative literature review.

Method: Integrative review made in 2020 performed in the following databases: PUBMED and Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS), which includes MEDLINE, SciELO and LILACS. The descriptors “Helicobacter pylori”, “Otitis Media with Effusion”, “Child” and “Children” were used. It was found 66 articles, of which duplicates or without relevance to the theme were excluded, leaving 18 to full-text reading. From these, only 16 complied with the research question.

Results: A total of 11 articles showed the presence of Helicobacter pylori in middle ear effusion (MEE) and/or biopsy by different methods, especially PCR, used in 12 of the 16 articles. The positivity of the samples varied between 2.9% and 70% in the analyzed studies, but only 6 of them suggested the influence of HP on the pathogenesis of OME. this is due to the significant presence of HP in the middle ear of children with otitis media with effusion and the clinical improvement of the disease with alternative treatment for this bacterium. The other studies question the relationship between HP and OME due to factors such as: non-identification of the bacterium in the middle ear, presence of not viable organisms for OME and non-acidic environment for HP.

Conclusions: Further studies should be conducted to confirm the influence of Helicobacter pylori on the etiopathogenesis of otitis media with effusion.

Keywords: helicobacter pylori; otitis media with effusion; child.