An evaluation of more than 6,000 children scheduled to have tubes placed in their ears to combat recurrent ear infections indicates that the procedure is inappropriate in about one-quarter of cases and of questionable benefit in another third.

The children in the study ranged in age from 22 days to 16 years.

The finding suggests that each year hundreds of thousands of children who undergo the tube procedure are unlikely to benefit from it and some may even be harmed.