Levofloxacin In The Treatment Of Children With Recurrent And/or Persistent Acute Otitis Media

This is a randomized, active-comparator, multicenter study consisting of 3 phases: a Pretreatment (Screening) Phase, a Treatment Phase, and a Posttreatment Phase. Subject eligibility will be determined at the screening visit based on signs and symptoms of acute otitis media (e.g., middle ear effusion, acute inflammation, acute purulent otorrhea) and criteria for recurrent and/or persistent acute otitis media. Eligible subjects will be randomized and drug will be dispensed by a study coordinator who will instruct parents and the subject about the importance of not revealing the assigned therapy to the subject's evaluator. Each subject will have an evaluator who will remain blinded to the subject's therapy throughout the study. Clinical assessments performed by a blinded evaluator at several time points throughout the study will be used to evaluate efficacy. Safety will be evaluated throughout the study by assessment of adverse events and changes in physical examinations (including musculoskeletal examination with evaluation of joints), vital signs, and clinical laboratory findings. Supplementary safety evaluations for musculoskeletal adverse events will be performed throughout the study. All subjects who enroll in this study and take at least 1 dose of levofloxacin or amoxicillin/clavulanate will be eligible to rollover into a long-term surveillance study primarily focused on the musculoskeletal system. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate non-inferiority of levofloxacin compared with amoxicillin/clavulanate on the clinical response at the end of therapy in infants and children who have recurrent and/or persistent acute otitis media. Either levofloxacin 10 mg/kg twice daily for 10 days (maximum daily dose of 500 mg) or amoxicillin/clavulanate (14:1) 45 mg amoxicillin/kg twice daily for 10 days (maximum daily dose of 3600 mg amoxicillin). Both study drugs will be given orally as a liquid suspension formulation