Thursday, June 25, 2009

Ear Tubes

Hi. It's gotten pretty hot in Toledo-- summer is definately here! Most of our office visits these days are for pre-school and general well care physicals. Quite a few of these children have tympanostomy tubes in place, or a history of prior tube placement. One of the known complications of ear tubes is perforation of the TM. These usually heal up with time, but it's important to follow them to ensure that that happens. Obstructing wax can keep you from getting a good look, so even in these well kids I will try to remove enough wax to get a complete look at the ear drum to document the presence of tubes or a perforation. Also, the Lighted Ear Curette is great for easily removing extruded tubes that are just sitting in the ear canal.

Let me know of your experiences with the Lighted Ear Curette, or any of our Safe Ear Curettes.

--Jim Huttner

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Swimmer's Ear

Hi, again. Toledo has finally warmed up enough to have kids hit the swimming pools, and with that we're seeing an increase in the number of otitis externa, or "swimmer's ear", cases.

We think of ear curettage as used mostly for removing stubborn, hard wax that obstructs the ear canal. But don't forget its usefulness in the diagnosis and treatment of swimmer's ear. Most experts agree that its important to remove the pus and debris in the affected ear canal to allow antibiotic ear drops to reach the infection site. For this, I find the FlexLoop and VersaLoop Safe Ear Curettes very effective. They seem to grab that gooey mess to let me drag it out of the canal, and their flexibility allows me to be extra gentle when curetting in a tender, infected ear canal.

Once I've cleared the bulk of the purulent drainage I have the choice of inserting an ear wick, or just administering antibiotic drops. Either way, I know that the drops are reaching the site of the infection instead of just sitting on top of the pus.

Let me know if you have experiences with curettage and otitis externa, or any other interesting cases you run into.

Dr. Huttner