Long-term antibiotics, while they decrease rates of infection during treatment, have an unknown effect on long-term outcomes such as hearing loss. This method of prevention has been associated with emergence of antibiotic-resistant otitic bacteria. They are thus not recommended.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) in early infancy, decreases the risk of acute otitis media in healthy infants. PCV is recommended for all children, and, if implemented broadly, PCV would have a significant public health benefit. Influenza vaccine is recommended annually for all children. PCV does not appear to decrease the risk of otitis media when given to high-risk infants or for older children who have previously experienced otitis media.

Risk factors such as season, allergy predisposition and presence of older siblings are known to be determinants of recurrent otitis media and persistent middle-ear effusions (MEE). History of recurrence, environmental exposure to tobacco smoke, use of daycare, and lack of breastfeeding have all been associated with increased risk of development, recurrence, and persistent MEE. Thus, cessation of smoking in the home should be encouraged, daycare attendance should be avoided or daycare facilities with the fewest attendees should be recommended, and breastfeeding should be promoted.

There is some evidence that breastfeeding for the first year of life is associated with a reduction in the number and duration of OM infections. Pacifier use, on the other hand, has been associated with more frequent episodes of AOM.

Evidence does not support zinc supplementation as an effort to reduce otitis rates except maybe in those with severe malnutrition such as marasmus.

Adhesive otitis media occurs when a thin retracted ear drum becomes sucked into the middle-ear space and stuck (i.e., adherent) to the ossicles and other bones of the middle ear.

Some signs and symptoms indicate the need for early referral. These include

- Difficulty swallowing

- Vocal stridor

- Ear pain

- Recent weight loss

- History of smoking

- Current or recent radiotherapy treatment (in the neck region)

- Recent neck surgery or surgery involving endotracheal tubing

- Person is a professional voice user (teacher, singer, actor, call center worker, and so on)

Acute prostatitis is relatively easy to diagnose due to its symptoms that suggest infection. The organism may be found in blood or urine, and sometimes in both. Common bacteria are "Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Proteus, Pseudomonas, Enterobacter, Enterococcus, Serratia," and "Staphylococcus aureus." This can be a medical emergency in some patients and hospitalization with intravenous antibiotics may be required. A complete blood count reveals increased white blood cells. Sepsis from prostatitis is very rare, but may occur in immunocompromised patients; high fever and malaise generally prompt blood cultures, which are often positive in sepsis. A prostate massage should never be done in a patient with suspected acute prostatitis, since it may induce sepsis. Since bacteria causing the prostatitis is easily recoverable from the urine, prostate massage is not required to make the diagnosis. Rectal palpation usually reveals an enlarged, exquisitely tender, swollen prostate gland, which is firm, warm, and, occasionally, irregular to the touch. C-reactive protein is elevated in most cases.

Prostate biopsies are not indicated as the (clinical) features (described above) are diagnostic. The histologic correlate of acute prostatitis is a neutrophilic infiltration of the prostate gland.

Acute prostatitis is associated with a transiently elevated PSA, i.e., the PSA is increased during an episode of acute prostatitis and then decreases again after it has resolved. PSA testing is not indicated in the context of uncomplicated acute prostatitis.

Acute laryngitis may persist, but will typically resolve on its own within two weeks. Recovery is likely to be quick if the patient follows the treatment plan. In viral laryngitis, symptoms can persist for an extended amount of time, even when upper respiratory tract inflammation has been resolved.

An oral whole cell nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae vaccine may protect against the disease, but "the evidence is mixed".

Antibiotics are the first line of treatment in acute prostatitis. Antibiotics usually resolve acute prostatitis infections in a very short time, however a minimum of two to four weeks of therapy is recommended to eradicate the offending organism completely. Appropriate antibiotics should be used, based on the microbe causing the infection. Some antibiotics have very poor penetration of the prostatic capsule, others, such as ciprofloxacin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, and tetracyclines such as doxycycline penetrate prostatic tissue well. In acute prostatitis, penetration of the prostate is not as important as for category II because the intense inflammation disrupts the prostate-blood barrier. It is more important to choose a bactericidal antibiotic (kills bacteria, e.g., a fluoroquinolone antibiotic) rather than a bacteriostatic antibiotic (slows bacterial growth, e.g. tetracycline) for acute potentially life-threatening infections.

Severely ill patients may need hospitalization, while nontoxic patients can be treated at home with bed rest, analgesics, stool softeners, and hydration. Men with acute prostatitis complicated by urinary retention are best managed with a suprapubic catheter or intermittent catheterization. Lack of clinical response to antibiotics should raise the suspicion of an abscess and prompt an imaging study such as a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS).

It is normally possible to establish the cause of ear pain based on the history. It is important to exclude cancer where appropriate, particularly with unilateral otalgia in an adult who uses tobacco or alcohol.Often migraines are caused by middle ear infections which can easily be treated with antibiotics. Often using a hot washcloth can temporarily relieve ear pain.

The cornerstone of diagnosis is an accurate history, and a good clinical examination of the eye, to eliminate traumatic uveitis. Ultrasonography is a useful tool, as it can detect a thickened iris, but only in the hands of an expert.

Acute care is the early and specialist management of adult patients suffering from a wide range of medical conditions requiring urgent or emergency care usually within 48 hoursof admission or referral from other specialties.

Acute hospitals are those intended for short-term medical and/or surgical treatment and care. The related medical speciality is acute medicine.

A physical examination will often reveal decreased intensity of breath sounds, wheezing, rhonchi, and prolonged expiration. Most physicians rely on the presence of a persistent dry or wet cough as evidence of bronchitis.

A variety of tests may be performed in patients presenting with cough and shortness of breath:

- A chest X-ray is useful to exclude pneumonia which is more common in those with a fever, fast heart rate, fast respiratory rate, or who are old.

- A sputum sample showing neutrophil granulocytes (inflammatory white blood cells) and culture showing that has pathogenic microorganisms such as "Streptococcus" species.

- A blood test would indicate inflammation (as indicated by a raised white blood cell count and elevated C-reactive protein).

Granular myringitis (GM) is a long term condition in which there is inflammation of the tympanic membrane in the ear and formation of granulation tissue within the tympanic membrane. It is a type of otitis externa.

Without treatment it can lead to narrowing of the ear canal. A number of treatment options exist including putting vinegar in the ear, using antibiotic drops, and surgery.

Management of ear pain depends on the underlying cause.Most cases of otitis media are self-limiting, resolving spontaneously without treatment within 3–5 days. Age-appropriate analgesics or a warm washcloth placed over the affected ear can help relieve pain until the infection has passed.In some cases ear pain has been treated successfully with manual therapy.

Horses that suffer from this disease can never be considered cured, although they can be managed by careful use of the therapy described above, and fast detection of new flare-ups. If the disease is not properly treated, it will eventually lead to blindness.

Antibiotics do not help the many lower respiratory infections which are caused by parasites or viruses. While acute bronchitis often does not require antibiotic therapy, antibiotics can be given to patients with acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis. The indications for treatment are increased dyspnoea, and an increase in the volume or purulence of the sputum. The treatment of bacterial pneumonia is selected by considering the age of the patient, the severity of the illness and the presence of underlying disease. Amoxicillin and doxycycline are suitable for many of the lower respiratory tract infections seen in general practice.

Vaccination helps prevent bronchopneumonia, mostly against influenza viruses, adenoviruses, measles, rubella, streptococcus pneumoniae, haemophilus influenzae, diphtheria, bacillus anthracis, chickenpox, and bordetella pertussis.

In medicine, describing a disease as acute denotes that it is of short and, as a corollary of that, of recent . The quantitation of how much time constitutes "short" and "recent" varies by disease and by context, but the core denotation of "acute" is always qualitatively in contrast with "chronic", which denotes long-lasting disease (for example, in acute leukemia and chronic leukemia). In addition, "acute" also often connotes two other meanings: onset and , such as in acute myocardial infarction (EMI), where suddenness and severity are both established aspects of the meaning. It thus often connotes that the condition is fulminant (as in the EMI example), but not always (as in acute rhinitis, which is usually synonymous with the common cold). The one thing that acute MI and acute rhinitis have in common is that they are not chronic. They can happen again (as in recurrent pneumonia, that is, multiple acute pneumonia episodes), but they are not the same ongoing for months or years (unlike chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is).

A noncount sense of "acute disease" refers to the acute phase, that is, a short course, of any disease entity. For example, in an article on ulcerative enteritis in poultry, the author says, "in acute disease there may be increased mortality without any obvious signs", referring to the acute form or phase of ulcerative enteritis.

In predicting the prognosis, there are several scoring indices that have been used as predictors of survival. Two such scoring systems are the Ranson criteria and APACHE II (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation) indices. Most, but not all studies report that the Apache score may be more accurate. In the negative study of the APACHE-II, the APACHE-II 24-hour score was used rather than the 48-hour score. In addition, all patients in the study received an ultrasound twice which may have influenced allocation of co-interventions. Regardless, only the APACHE-II can be fully calculated upon admission. As the APACHE-II is more cumbersome to calculate, presumably patients whose only laboratory abnormality is an elevated lipase or amylase do not need assessment with the APACHE-II; however, this approach is not studied. The APACHE-II score can be calculated at www.sfar.org.

Practice guidelines state:

Predicts mortality risk in pancreatitis with fewer variables than Ranson's criteria. Data should be taken from the first 24 hours of the patient's evaluation.

- BUN >25 mg/dL (8.9 mmol/L)

- Abnormal mental status with a Glasgow coma score <15

- Evidence of SIRS (systemic inflammatory response syndrome)

- Patient age >60 years old

- Imaging study reveals pleural effusion

Patients with a score of zero had a mortality of less than one percent, whereas patients with a score of five had a mortality rate of 22 percent. In the validation cohort, the BISAP score had similar test performance characteristics for predicting mortality as the APACHE II score. As is a problem with many of the other scoring systems, the BISAP has not been validated for predicting outcomes such as length of hospital stay, need for ICU care, or need for intervention.

Diagnosis is typically based on a person's signs and symptoms. The color of the sputum does not indicate if the infection is viral or bacterial. Determining the underlying organism is typically not needed. Other causes of similar symptoms include asthma, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, bronchiectasis, and COPD. A chest X-ray may be useful to detect pneumonia.

Another common sign of bronchitis is a cough which lasts ten days to three weeks. If the cough lasts a month or a year it may be chronic bronchitis. In addition to having a cough a fever may be present. Acute bronchitis is normally caused by a viral infection. Typically these infections are rhinovirus, para influenza, or influenza. No specific testing is normally needed to diagnose acute bronchitis.

The diagnostic criteria for acute exacerbation of COPD generally include a production of sputum that is purulent and may be thicker than usual, but without evidence of pneumonia (which involves mainly the alveoli rather than the bronchi). Also, diagnostic criteria may include an increase in frequency and severity of coughing, as well as increased shortness of breath.

A chest X-ray is usually performed on people with fever and, especially, hemoptysis (blood in the sputum), to rule out pneumonia and get information on the severity of the exacerbation. Hemoptysis may also indicate other, potentially fatal, medical conditions.

A history of exposure to potential causes and evaluation of symptoms may help in revealing the cause the exacerbation, which helps in choosing the best treatment. A sputum culture can specify which strain is causing a bacterial AECB. An early morning sample is preferred.

E-nose showed the ability to smell the cause of the exacerbation.

The definition of a COPD exacerbation is commonly described as "lost in translation," meaning that there is no universally accepted standard with regard to defining an acute exacerbation of COPD. Many organizations consider it a priority to create such a standard, as it would be a major step forward in the diagnosis and quality of treatment of COPD.

Acute exacerbations can be partially prevented. Some infections can be prevented by vaccination against pathogens such as influenza and "Streptococcus pneumoniae". Regular medication use can prevent some COPD exacerbations; long acting beta-adrenoceptor agonists (LABAs), long-acting anticholinergics, inhaled corticosteroids and low-dose theophylline have all been shown to reduce the frequency of COPD exacerbations. Other methods of prevention include:

- Smoking cessation and avoiding dust, passive smoking, and other inhaled irritants

- Yearly influenza and 5-year pneumococcal vaccinations

- Regular exercise, appropriate rest, and healthy nutrition

- Avoiding people currently infected with e.g. cold and influenza

- Maintaining good fluid intake and humidifying the home, in order to help reduce the formation of thick sputum and chest congestion.

Acute Cerebellar ataxia is a diagnosis of exclusion. Urgent CT scan is necessary to rule out cerebellar tumor or hemorrhage as cause of the ataxia; however in acute cerebellar ataxia, the CT will be normal. CSF studies are normal earlier in the course of disease. Later on CSF shows moderate elevation of proteins.

The differential diagnosis of acute proliferative glomerulonephritisis is based on the following:

Prevention is by not smoking and avoiding other lung irritants. Frequent hand washing may also be protective. Treatment of acute bronchitis typically involves rest, paracetamol (acetaminophen), and NSAIDs to help with the fever. Cough medicine has little support for its use and is not recommended in children less than six years of age. There is tentative evidence that salbutamol may be useful in those with wheezing; however, it may result in nervousness and tremors. Antibiotics should generally not be used. An exception is when acute bronchitis is due to pertussis. Tentative evidence supports honey and pelargonium to help with symptoms. Getting plenty of rest and fluids is also often recommended.