Diagnosis, natural history, and late effects of otitis media with effusion.

page v – the objective statement makes no mention of treatment for OME; further the search strategy does not include a “treatment” module. If treatment is not addressed then the title of the report should be modified. • On page "v", I suggest that the first sentence of Objectives would read more smoothly as: "the impact of otitis media on hearing and on longterm speech and language development, and the operating characteristics...." • page "v", the first sentence of Search Strategy should read consistent with page 2; for page "v", I suggest "including otitis media, otitis media with effusion, non-suppurative otitis media, fluid ear...." • The refinement of the purpose of the guideline on page V in the objectives section states the purpose of the guideline more clearly in comparison from report I reviewed in August of 1999. • Move (Results: line 1, page vi) of the results to the conclusions. The remainder of the results are clear within the structured abstract. • Page vi the ages of the patients are unclear. Outcomes were followed in children up to 22 years of age. A general statement regarding the ages of patients in the studies would be helpful. • Page "vi", the last sentence of Data Collection and Analysis would, I think, be better by omitting "in" at "non-English language", and omitting the comma after "craniofacial deficiencies" [I prefer the word anomaly rather than deficiency]. • In last sentence, add “reports in non-English language” • page "vi", in the first sentence of Main Results, the phrase "of ears" disturbs me. I'd prefer "patients" or "children" -as pages 9 (lines 4-7 from the top of the page) and 154 (lines 1-5 from the top) state. However, I do realize that the data depicted in Tables 21 and 22 do not allow such a change in words on page "vi". • Page vi what is meant by early life otitis media does that include • The title was changed to read “Diagnosis, Natural History and Late Effects of OME”.