Chronic discharging ear in a child: are we missing something?
- Author:
Dutta, Mainak
;
Ghatak, Soumya
;
Biswas, Gautam
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- From:
The Medical Journal of Malaysia
2013;68(4):368-71
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Chronic discharging ear, mostly due to middle or external ear infection, is one of the leading causes for seeking healthcare among the paediatric population in a developing country. However, a long-standing forgotten middle ear foreign body forms a rare cause for such presentation demanding a high index of suspicion from the clinicians. Most of them are iatrogenic or accidental, and are removed by conventional permeatal approach; need for tympanotomy is rarely documented in the recent literature. We report the first case where a large stone was introduced into the middle ear through a pre-existing tympanic membrane perforation by the child himself, and only the second documentation of removal of a middle ear foreign body by tympanotomy in a child.
