Average otitis media

Otitis media is more common in children than in adults. He is transported heavily, manifested by fever and severe earache, a significant deterioration in hearing. This inflammation can lead to complications from the brain and its membranes.

Scarlet fever, influenza, measles, acute respiratory infections are the main reasons for the development of otitis media. Through the auditory tubes from the nasopharynx the inflammatory process enters the tympanum. Pus can break through the membrane, and may leak out of the ear canal from the outside.

An important role in the appearance of the disease is the presence of adenoids in children, curvature of the nasal septum, polyps.

Only a doctor can prescribe the correct complex treatment of the middle ear. First of all, it consists in caring for the patient. The doctor can recommend using compresses at home. They reduce the pain accompanying acute otitis media, help to resolve the inflammatory process that occurs in the tympanum. Compress is not placed on the ear shell itself, but only on the area around it. A gauze napkin needs to be folded several times, moistened with alcohol, twice diluted with water, or vodka and make a hole in it for the ear. Adult compress should be applied a new one every four hours, and children even more often so that the skin is not burned. In the intervals between this procedure it is necessary to impose warm dry bandages.

In addition, they treat, and successfully, otitis media with the introduction of warm medicines using a sterile pipette. The patient should lie down so that the ear was on top, you need to hold a drop in it for at least 10 minutes.

In extreme cases, when neither compresses nor medications help, and a person continues to have severe pain in the ear, they resort to puncturing the eardrum so that pus comes out of the cavity. The attitude to this method is controversial, many are afraid to undergo such a procedure because of a possible violation of the case. However, sometimes, when a disease is started, only she can help a lot.

Measures that can prevent acute otitis media are aimed primarily at reducing respiratory diseases: sports, nutrition, hardening. To inflammation of the respiratory tract (mucous membrane), and later of the middle ear, smoking can lead. Even frequent repetitive wrong blowing can cause otitis.

In advanced cases, the disease develops into a chronic form. Or it is complicated by mastoiditis, when the cells and septa of the mastoid process become inflamed .

Chronic otitis media is characterized by the fact that a constant aperture is retained in the tympanic membrane , the ears drop and the pus flows periodically. This is a dangerous disease and must be taken very seriously. After all, the cholesteatoma that forms in the body, eventually corrodes the bone and pus passes into the inner ear and causes the labyrinthite - its inflammation. Symptoms of chronic otitis media - imbalance, nausea, unsteady gait, dizziness. Untimely treatment and absence of treatment provoke the appearance of severe complications: inflammation of the membranes of the brain (meningitis), blood infection (sepsis), abscess of brain tissue. The source of pus in the ear for several years can cause symptoms such as chills, sweating, fever, headache, speech disorders. But few associate them with otitis media. Recurrence can occur even if it enters the ear of the water, as the hole in the eardrum remains intact. Therefore, during the washing of the head, bathing, it is necessary to cover the auditory passage with cotton wool, in front of these moistened warmed-up vaseline or other liquid oil.

A person suffering from an inflammation of the middle ear who has a chronic course should be constantly observed by an otorhinolaryngologist.