Earaches Visualized
A common problem in children and adults, earache can cause intense pain, drainage from the canal, and sometimes hearing loss. What do these otoscopic views reveal?
Clinician Reviews. 2015 September;25(9):15
September 1, 2015|Clinician Reviews
1. A 30-year-old woman complained of drainage from her ear for the past three months. She admitted that her hearing was diminished in that ear. She had a history of recurrent ear infections since childhood.
Photo courtesy of Vladimir Zlinsky, MD, in Roy F. Sullivan, PhD. Audiology Forum: video otoscopy, www.rcsullivan.com. Reprinted from The Color Atlas of Family Medicine. 2nd ed.
Diagnosis: Cholesteatoma, similar to an epidermal inclusion cyst in the skin, produces keratinaceous material that fills the middle ear, causing hearing loss and otorrhea.
For more information, see “Diminished hearing.” J Fam Pract. 2013.
