ABSTRACT
To evaluate the frequency of variant constitutional parameters among children of primary school age and had otitis media with effusion [OME]. The present study was assigned to include 100 children of primary school age with manifestations of OME and underwent myringotomy and insertion of Grommet's tube for middle ear aeration. All patients underwent preoperative determination of age, gender, weight [kg] and height [cm] and body mass index [BMI]. Obesity was defined according to the percentile of BMI adjusted for age and gender and for comparative purposes; enrolled patients were stratified according to BMI percentile strata within each age-stratum and gender frequencies. The study included 100 patients; 54 males and 46 females with a mean age of 8.7 +/- 1.8; range: 6-12 years and mean BMI of 27.2 +/- 4.5; range: 17.7-35.5 kg/m2. Twenty-six patients had average healthy weight, 20 patients were at risk of being over-weight, 23 patients were over-weight and 31 were obese. Twenty-three of patients aged 6-8 years [57.5%], 17 patients aged >8-10 years [47.5%] and 11 patients older than >10 years [57.2%] were average weight or at risk of being over-weight with non-significant between age strata. Similarly, the percentages of over-weight and obese patients showed nonsignificant difference between age strata. Patients' distribution according to gender showed significantly higher percentage of females in obese patients compared to those had average weight or at risk of being over-weight and non-significantly compared to over-weight patients. Average weight patients showed higher percentage of males that was significant compared to over-weight patients and non-significant compared to those at risk of being over-weight. There is a relationship between obesity and OME in children of primary school age and this was age or sex-independent and could be attributed to obesity-associated disturbed immune milieu or to affection of taste sensation