Infections in the ear is one of the most common problem by which a patient
comes to any ENT hospital or ENT specialist. It results in symptoms like
severe pain, ear discharge, hard of hearing, tinnitus and sense of
imbalance. Understanding the associated symptomatology in detail is
essential for the proper diagnosis and treatment.
Ear infections occur in the external ear, middle ear or inner ear and can be
bacterial, viral or fungal in nature. Some common outer ear conditions are
furunculosis, otitis externa, Myringitis, Otomycosis( fungal infection of the
ear), preauricular or auricular sinus infections, perichondritis and pinna
abscess. Acute and chronic otitis media are middle ear infections and serous
/ suppurative labyrinthitis are the infections in the inner ear.
Malignant otitis externa or skull base osteomyelitis is a bone eroding infection caused
by pseudimonas in immunocompromised individuals especially in poorly
controlled diabetic patients which initially starts in the external ear and can
progress to bone erosion and multiple cranial nerve palsies. Another
infection is Herpes Zoster which may also lead to facial nerve palsy.
Ear infections can also be a pointer to infections originating from other
areas like parotid and abscesses in the neck like branchial sinus abscess. It
also serves as a warning sign to intracranial infections like meningitis and
brain abscess in chronic otitis media.
Ear infections may lead to complications inside and outside the limits of temporal bone like mastoid
abscess, labyrinthitis, petrositis, facial nerve palsy (intra temporal
complications), meningitis, brain abscess, sigmoid sinus thrombosis and
otitis hydrocephalus (intra cranial complications).
Therefore evaluation of ear infections should include not only identifying
the cause but also ruling out complications. Prompt clinical history and
examination should be aided by investigations like otoendoscopy,
examination under microscope, pus culture and sensitivity, audiologic
evaluation and temporal bone analysis by radiology whenever indicated.
Ascent ENT hospital has the best doctor for treatment of ear infections in
Kerala. The hospital where standard clinical evaluation is complimented by
all the essential otologic investigations like otoendoscopy, microscopic
examination, well equipped audiology department with all audiometric tests
like pure tone audiometry, impedance audiometry and facility for temporal
bone Cone Beam CT. Hence it is assumed that no diagnosis is missed
Ascent hospital also provides the best treatment currently available for ear
infections. It is a centre that does maximum number of otologic surgeries
utilizing the experience and expertise of doyens in this field. Right from
office procedures like endoscopic suction clearance to pre auricular sinus
excision, tympanoplasty and mastoid surgeries, the centre also do
surgeries to treat various complications due to ear infection like facial nerve
decompression. The hospital also provides best medical and surgical
management of secondary complications due to ear infections like mastoid
abscess and perichondritis
Mastoid surgeries include exenteration of all accessible mastoid air cells and
removal of middle ear pathology with or without reconstruction of hearing
loss. It can be performed as cortical mastoidectomy, intact canal wall or
canal wall down mastoidectomy according to disease extend. Surgeries are
done with an aim to provide dry ear, to prevent future infections and restore
hearing loss resulted from the chronic ear disease. The centre also excels
in the expert surgical management of extensive cholesteatoma cases
including revision mastoid surgeries. With respect to otologic surgeries
Ascent provides the best surgical outcome
