Educational draft · awaiting clinical reviewUse Rapid for revision, not patient-care decisions. Check current national and local guidance and the BNF or BNFC before acting.
2 min synopsisUK scopeSources checked 7 Sept 2026Clinical review pending
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Do not attribute acute red flags to glue ear
Effusion alone does not explain severe systemic illness, mastoid swelling, new facial weakness or a sudden major hearing change without an adequate conductive explanation.
Action: Use the appropriate urgent ENT, serious-infection or sudden-hearing-loss pathway when these features occur. Persistent adult effusion, especially unilateral disease without a recent respiratory infection, needs ENT assessment of its cause.
Synopsis
Assess middle-ear effusion through its effect on hearing and development, select observation or intervention and recognise adult presentations requiring investigation of an underlying cause.
Otitis media with effusion is middle-ear fluid without the acute inflammation or infection of acute otitis media.
Hearing can fluctuate, so apparently good listening on one day does not exclude an important problem.
Formal assessment combines clinical history and examination with hearing testing and tympanometry.
Key red flags
Severe ear pain with fever, postauricular swelling or neurological signs requires reassessment for acute infection or its complications.
National guidance is shown before implementation-dependent detail. Typical adult dose examples remain subject to patient factors, contraindications and the live BNF or specialist protocol. Source check completed 7 Sept 2026; clinical approval remains outstanding.