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    The content on this page is not current guidance and is only for the purposes of the consultation process.

    Otitis media with effusion in under 12s

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    3 What the guideline will cover

    3.1 Groups that will be covered

    All children under 12 years with suspected or confirmed otitis media with effusion (OME).

    3.2 Settings that will be covered

    All settings where NHS-commissioned care is provided.

    3.3 Key areas that will be covered

    We will look at evidence in the areas below when developing the guideline, but it may not be possible to make recommendations in all the areas.

    1. Risk factors for OME.

    2. Recognition of OME (to help identify when to refer for further investigation).

    3. Natural history of OME (to help identify when intervention and follow-up is needed).

    4. Interventions for children with OME.

    5. Care during and after surgery.

    6. Information for children, parents and carers.

            Note that guideline recommendations for medicines will normally fall within licensed indications; exceptionally, and only if clearly supported by evidence, use outside a licensed indication may be recommended. The guideline will assume that prescribers will use a medicine's summary of product characteristics to inform decisions made with individual patients.

            3.4 Areas that will not be covered

            1. Diagnosis or management of acute otitis media. This is a different condition and is covered by the NICE guideline on antimicrobial prescribing for acute otitis media.

            2. Specific methods of assessing hearing in children.
              This is not specific to OME.

            3. Homeopathy, cranial osteopathy, acupuncture, diet changes, immunostimulants or massage. In the 2008 guideline, these interventions were not found to be effective in managing OME and the guideline recommended against using them. We did not identify new evidence on these interventions when we checked in 2018. Therefore, we plan not to review the evidence on them as part of this update. All the 2008 recommendations will be removed as part of this update, but the update will not make new recommendations on these particular interventions.

                    3.5 Related NICE guidance and other NICE publications

                    3.6 NICE guidance about the experience of people using NHS services

                    NICE has produced the following guidance on the experience of people using the NHS. This guideline will not include additional recommendations on these topics unless there are specific issues related to OME in children:

                    3.7 Economic aspects

                    We will take economic aspects into account when making recommendations. We will develop an economic plan that states for each review question (or key area in the scope) whether economic considerations are relevant, and if so whether this is an area that should be prioritised for economic modelling and analysis. We will review the economic evidence and carry out economic analyses, using an NHS and personal social services (PSS) perspective, as appropriate.