2024 Volume 45 Issue 1 Pages 27-32
Recurrent acute otitis media(rAOM) in young children are on the rise globally. In otitis-prone children, the effectiveness of repeated antibiotic therapy for each new infection and prophylactic antibiotic therapy to prevent AOM relapse is quite limited, and repeated antibiotic use leads to antibiotic-resistant pathogen development. Juzen-taiho-to (JTT) is known as an herbal medicine that improves immune function. We evaluated whether JTT has a beneficial effect in children with rAOM between January 2012 and December 2022. Fourteen rAOM children took JTT for 12 weeks. The mean number of AOM episodes before JTT treatments was 1.31 times per month. The mean number of AOM episodes in each month (1M; 0–4 w, 2M; 5–8 w, 3M; 9–12 w) during JTT treatments was 0.33, 0.17, and 0.08 respectively. The frequency of AOM decreased gradually while taking JTT orally, and significantly decreased (Wilcoxon signed rank test, p=0.002) when JTT was administered for 12 weeks. JTT appears to effectively prevent rAOM in children. JTT is thought to be one of the first-choice treatments for rAOM in children, and avoiding the overuse of antibiotics would prevent the increase of drug-resistant bacteria.
