How helpful is pneumatic otoscopy in improving diagnostic accuracy?
Department of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Rd, Bethesda, MD 20814-4799, USA. wjones@usuhs.milBACKGROUND: Pneumatic otoscopy is believed to be helpful in optimally assessing the presence or absence of middle ear effusion (MEE). Although expert clinicians teach the importance of this diagnostic skill to trainees, evidence exists that many pediatric providers do not typically perform pneumatic otoscopy. OBJECTIVE: To determine if the otoscopic accuracy within a group of clinicians improves with the pneumatic assessment when compared with the static assessment using videotaped otoendoscopic examinations (VOEs). METHODS: Residents and faculty from 2 pediatric training programs served as subjects. All viewed a set of 50 video otoscopic examinations of tympanic membranes (TMs) from a validated VOE developed previously for training purposes. The video displays each TM in a static presentation and then in a pneumatic (mobile) presentation,
