Classification of otitis media according to ICD 10 and the nature of the course of the disease

1 Causes of different types of

The cause of external otitis media development can be:

• subcooling;
• infection, recorded during the cleaning of the ears;
• permanent ear contact with water;
• chemical injury;
• mechanical injury.

But the average otitis can be caused by various pathogenic microorganisms:

• by microbes;
• viruses;
• with mushrooms;
• by bacteria;
• with a hemophilic rod;
• by mycobacteria;
• by staphylococci;
• streptococci.

In most cases, the source of the disease is a hemophilic rod, streptococci and staphylococci. The existing infection from the nose or nasopharynx through the mouth of the auditory tube falls on the mucosa of the middle ear. Because of this, the pressure in the tympanic cavity decreases and in the middle ear lumen appears a fluid released by small blood vessels.

In older people, otitis media appears as a complication after SARS and influenza.

If internal otitis media is considered, it most often develops because of:

• trauma;
• complications of infectious diseases;
• acute otitis media;
• of chronic otitis media.

In the inner ear, the infection penetrates through the blood, the meninges and the middle ear.

Factors that cause otitis media:

• allergy;
• congestion in the ear fluid;
• immunodeficiency;
• infections of the respiratory tract, untreated;
• angina;
• laryngitis;
• sinusitis;
• pharyngitis;
• tracheitis;
• regular and prolonged contact with water( swimming);
• infection, inflicted with sharp objects when cleaning the auricles;
• surgical intervention on the nasal cavity and nasopharynx, which causes deterioration of the patency of the auditory tubes;
• inability to blow your nose.

2 Symptoms of pathology

With external otitis, there is a characteristic acute throbbing pain, which can calm down when chewing and talking. Pain gives in the teeth, neck and eyes. The auditory canal blushes and swells if it is filled with pus. The hearing also worsens.

With acute otitis media, shooting pain starts to worry, and body temperature often rises. And after 1-2 days in the tympanic cavity appears perforation and begins suppuration. The pain in the ear disappears or decreases. The body temperature is normalized.

In chronic otitis media, which comes from an acute form, there are complaints of periodic or persistent suppuration from the ear, hearing is reduced and dizziness may occur. Sometimes the pressure in the ear and the pain in the temporal region are disturbing.

Signs of internal otitis may be an unexpected attack of dizziness, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, there may be noise in the ears.

If symptoms persist, contact your ENT doctor immediately. The doctor will select the necessary treatment and explain how to avoid further complications and relapses of the disease.

3 The ailment of a child

Often children suffer from otitis.

The auditory tube is wide and short. Hence, infection is easier to penetrate. In an infant this disease is due to the fact that it lies more still and is usually in a horizontal position. During feeding, milk can flow through the auditory tube.

To determine that the baby has an earache is difficult. The middle part of it is reliably closed by the tympanic membrane. However, there are some signs in which it is still worthwhile to see a doctor:

• , when feeding, the child abruptly throws up the chest;
• breathes poorly with a spout;
• nasal congestion;
• tweaks with the legs;
• crying is like a cry;
• rapidly increases body temperature;
• the child tries to lie on the side where the ear hurts.

In children, external otitis occurs due to frequent diathesis and allergic diseases of various types. Inflammation occurs on the auricle.

In the period of teething in young children, too, often there is otitis. The child doctor necessarily examines the state of the tympanic membrane of the child, and if she is slightly involved, this indicates an inflammatory process and otitis in the middle ear.

4 Diagnosis and the need for timely access to a doctor

Can I diagnose myself?

To distinguish the external otitis from the middle is visually impossible, but the external ear hurts just like the middle ear. Available codes for ICD-10 indicate a wide variety of complications of this disease. Therefore, it is impossible to treat a sick organ independently! This will only aggravate the situation.

It is permissible to render yourself only first aid. If there is no discharge from the ear, dry heat may be applied or turundas soaked in boric alcohol may be used.

When treating directly the otitis media, it is very important to establish and eliminate its cause. Otherwise, therapy will be useless.

How common is this disease?

Among otitis pathology, otitis is the most common disease. Since anatomically the ears in infants have a short ear canal, and if you do not keep the baby after eating with a bar so that it vomits and releases air, it can lead to otitis. Nutritional otitis in young children and adults is also quite often.

Threatens?

If the disease is not treated correctly, then a person can become deaf. This is a terrible and serious disease, which is sometimes treated very frivolously.

Alertness should cause:

• frequent colds;
• discharge from the ear;
• goes from ear to blood.

Does hygiene influence?

Often, external otitis occurs due to improper cleaning of the ears. That is, hygiene should be:

• without violence;
• is gentle;
• with an earwax, do not stick it in your ear far;
• do not scratch your ear with hairpins or sharp objects.

Above listed addictions lead to a purulent process. And just scratching the ear skin inside, you can provoke an external otitis, and then the middle one.

There are special ear wigs for sale, which are exactly the length that you can shove them into your ear. It should be borne in mind that with intensive wiping of the ears, sulfur production is stimulated, and it is an excellent medium for microorganisms.

Very clean people like to clean their ears with cotton balls, stilettos, matches and other objects. But the ear cleans itself and does not need help. Hair follicles and hairs that are on the surface of the skin of the auditory canal, during the day, perform constant oscillatory movements. Slow inside and sharp outside. Due to this, the ear pushes out all the dirt that gets into it.

How are sounds perceived?

First, the sound wave enters the eardrum, where it is processed through the auditory ossicles and enters the cochlea. From the cochlea, the sound signal from the neurons is synchronously transmitted to the brain. If there is swelling and inflammation in the way of sound, the hearing decreases.

Is it possible to restore hearing promptly?

Today, really a lot. It is impossible to just correct the congenital pathology. If the child was born deaf, then it is very rare to restore hearing.

5 Useful recommendations

Treatment of otitis is not difficult. But usually on acute otitis pay little attention, and he in itself can "go through" within 2 weeks and smoothly go into chronic.

In the acute stage, the patient feels a shooting pain. He does not hear well. Discomfort, headache and often high fever up to 39-40 ° C, especially in children, make it urgent to see a doctor.

And adults are more likely to self-medicate, and the acute stage of otitis without proper treatment goes into a chronic form. There are cases when the auditory ossicles decay because of the purulent process, the hearing is sharply worsened, and only then the adult person turns to the otolaryngologist.

Insufficient blood supply and impaired microcirculation of the inner ear lead to hearing loss in senile age. The source or stimulus to this process can be developing atherosclerosis, so it is necessary to carry out prevention or treatment for this disease. It is not recommended for older people to listen loudly to turn on the radio or TV, so this aggravates the development of hearing loss.

Prevention of otitis is a good immune system. The organism with good immunity copes with viruses and bacteria, and then the otitis can pass in an easy form, even without medical intervention. But if there is pain and after sleep there are discharge from the ear on the pillow( gray-reddish), you should immediately go to the doctor.

To ensure that the immune system is always in order and catarrhal diseases happen as rarely as possible, it is recommended that adults and children do massage and gradual hardening.

In children, for prevention, you can exclude the abundant water ingress in your ears when bathing. To do this, before bathing, you need to take a cotton wool, a little moistened in a simple petroleum jelly, and put it into the ears of the child so that the water does not penetrate into the auricle.