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takyon writes:

A new method of delivering antibiotics could cure more ear infections while reducing symptoms, with only a single treatment:

Ear infections in children are common, uncomfortable, and require strong doses of antibiotics. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital are designing an antibiotic gel that can be squirted directly into the ear canal to treat ear infections in just one treatment. [...] Although a course of antibiotics is usually effective, it is not an ideal solution for a number of reasons. For instance, coercing a child into taking medication several times a day for 7-10 days can be challenging. As the senior author of the study, Dr. Daniel Kohane, colorfully explains: "Force-feeding antibiotics to a toddler by mouth is like a full-contact martial art."

Often, because the symptoms of an ear infection disappear before the course of antibiotics is over, parents stop treatment early; this means that ear infections are more likely to recur - 40 percent of children have four or more episodes. Also, if a course of antibiotics is not taken in full, it encourages the development of drug-resistant infections, which is a growing concern for everyone. Another issue with the current solution for treating middle-ear infections is that, because antibiotics do not easily travel to the site of the infection, high doses are necessary. And high doses bring an increase in side effects, including diarrhea, oral thrush, and rashes.

[...] It may seem that squirting antibiotics into the ear canal might be an easier solution, but the eardrum, or tympanic membrane, is impenetrable. Dr. Kochane and his team have bioengineered a solution that could circumvent this anatomical gatekeeper. His team has developed an antibiotic gel that can chaperone drugs past the eardrum and directly into the middle ear; it manages this with the help of chemical permeation enhancers (CPEs). These CPEs insert themselves into a membrane, opening molecular pores and allowing the antibiotics through.

So far, it has been tested in chinchillas. Here's the abstract:

Treatment of otitis media by transtympanic delivery of antibiotics (DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf4363) (DX)

Original Submission