Santa Maria lab presentations at the American Otological Society meeting

Anthony Thai, a final year medical student working in the Santa Maria lab as part of a Medical Scholars research term, presented 2 podium talks surrounding research in chronic suppurative otitis media. The first showed how persister cells are responsible for treatment failure. Topical antibiotics and antiseptics are inadequate to treat these and explains the large relapsing burden of CSOM. The second study presented looked at the heal care burden of CSOM. Medical treatment has a very high chance of failure within the first year of treatment with surgery extending the time to recurrence but not eliminating late recurrences. The healthcare burden for CSOM in the US is up to $11 billion per year.