Otitis Media: hold the antibiotics

This editorial in CMAJ is wonderful.  The authors summarize a recent paper in that jornal that found a small difference in outcomes between patients who received amoxicillin and those who received placebo.  86% of patients who received placebo - and 92% of those who received amoxicillin had resolution of disease.  The editorial appropriately points out that this small difference should not cause us to think that antibiotics are appropriate for first-line treatment of AOM.  The NNT remains ~ 11 for treatment of AOM with antibiotics.  Do we really want those 10 extra kids treated? ...  No.  of course not.