Foreign body in ear
Presence of foreign body inside the ear canal
Incidence:
* common
in children
* patients
with schizophrenia
* in
person who are bored
Two types :
living/ non-living
Non living
Children may insert variety of fb in the ear
Pieces of chalk
grains
Piece of paper
Stone
Piece of pencil
Adult may present with
Seeds
Match stick
Wood / metal
Living
Flying insects like mosquito, flies
and small cockroach
maggots in the ear canal
flies may be attracted to foul smelling
discharges and lay eggs and which hatch out in to larvae which is known as
maggot
Clinical manifestations:
depends
upon the type of foreign body
Coughing due to compression of vagus
nerves
Conductive hearing loss in the
affected ear
Otalgia
intense
irritation
Sensation of fullness
Tinnitus
Management: non living
Forceps removal
Soft and irregular foreign bodies are
removed by this method
By using crocodile forceps
Syringing:
most of seed grains and smooth objects removed by this method
Microscpic removal with special equipment: smooth and hard object like steel
balls should be removed by general anaesthesia and an operating microscope
Suction: by
low suction pressure we can remove the foreign material from the ear canal
Postural approach: used when foreign body impacted in the deep meatus:
by this method it can be push in to
middle ear
Management: living
Kill insects by instilling oil
(household remedy) spirit
Chloroform water
Once killed the insects, it can be
remove by any method same as for nonliving management
Management: maggots
* instilling
chloroform water
* later
removed by forceps
* usually
such patient have discharging ears with perforation of tympanic membrane so syringing
may not be advisable
COMMENTS