Otitis-An otitis rather often touches the children

Otitis

An otitis rather often touches the children. It is generally painful and can occur at the same time as a rhinitis or a pharyngitis. It can also occur later in the adult. In fact, various parts of the ear can be concerned.

A little anatomy

Inside the ear, there are several compartments; those which interest us here are the external auditory canal and the middle ear; they are separated by a membrane which is called the tympanum.

The external auditory canal has an external end in the house of the ear (this conduit corresponds to accessible space with the little finger).

The middle ear where the ossicles (all small bones) are on a side is stopped by the tympanum and other side in communication with space nose-throat by a small channel which is called the Eustachian tube.

At the bottom of the throat, there are also lymphoid bodies which are called the vegetations, they are very developed in the child because they take part in the development of defenses of the organization against all the microbes which pass by there and in particular the viruses responsible for the colds.

The vegetations decrease by volume as the child grows.

The middle ear is the seat of hearing

The middle ear is a strategic place for hearing. Indeed, the ossicles transmit the vibrations of the sound via the tympanum to nervous structures and the brain. It is understood easily that if this space is sick, that is likely in the long term to compromise the hearing and the appearance of a deafness.

Otitises

According to whether the infection is on a side or other of the tympanum, we will have an otitis media which will touch the compartment of the middle ear behind the tympanum or an external otitis which will relate to the external auditory canal, in front of the tympanum.

The Eustachian tube from which the evil comes

If the patient has a cold or another rhino-pharyngée affection, the microbes can go up in the middle ear by the Eustachian tube and cause an infection.

This one can also be the seat of an ignition and be stopped more or less and prevent secretions of the middle ear to run out normally towards the throat and to also involve a bacterial infection.

The vegetations also, when they are developed too much, tend to stop the opening of the Eustachian tubes and to facilitate the appearance of otitises with repetitions.

It is not desirable to too early remove them because of their immunizing role.

Acute otitis of the child

It is not rare that a child makes a bacterial infectious otitis with the waning of a cold. The Eustachian tube is stopped all the more easily as the vegetations are bulky and it appears an acute otitis with an important pain and fever.

You noticed certainly that your doctor looks at systematically in the ears of your child caught cold by using an otoscope (it is a small flashlight whose light is directed on a small speculum): he seeks an attack of the middle ear; indeed, if the small patient has an otitis, he will see that its tympanum is bent, red. Sometimes even, the tympanum opened spontaneously under the push of an abscess formed in the middle ear, and he sees sourdre pus.

To prevent the otitis as far as possible

To decrease the risk of otitis, it is important to make to moucher your child several times per day; when it is too small, use a fly-baby or a twisted dry cotton which you delicately introduce into his nose and withdraw all gently, the mucosities leave all alone adhering to cotton and the child will have the released nose.

Washings with physiological salt solution or another hypertonic solution are also recommended.

To treat the acute otitis by antibiotics

If the otitis is declared, it is necessary to take antibiotics during all the time that you prescribed the doctor. Generally, 24 or 48 hours after the first antibiotic catch, the fever drops, the pain decreases but the bacteria “are only deadened”, it is necessary to eliminate them and thus follow the treatment during at least 5 to 7 days.

It is usually associated a anti-pyretic analgesics (which will involve a reduction in the temperature and pain) more or less an anti-inflammatory drug which also takes part in the reduction in the pain by decreasing the edema (swelling).

Paracentesis

The pain is due to the pressure created by the accumulation of secretions and pus in the middle ear. Sometimes the pain is important, the abscess is visible by transparency behind the tympanum. It is necessary to practice a paracentesis i.e. to make a small slit in the tympanum with a lancet to evacuate the collection of pus outside, the pressure decreases and the pain disappears immediately.

Today, paracenteses are less frequent, the effective antibiotics.

Séreuse otitis media

It is a chronic otitis, the middle ear is permanently inflated and filled with liquid badly evacuated by the Eustachian tube. It is not always infected and the antibiotics do not have any action then.

The patient often has a fall of hearing. It is important to detect this handicap in particular in the child and to treat it.

To treat this affection, it is necessary to make a hole in the tympanum and to leave it open by putting tympanic aerators (twin wheels or yoyos or drains), they make it possible to air the middle ear towards the external auditory canal.

A person who carries twin wheels should not put the head under water.

External otitis

It has nothing to do with a cold.

It has much less consequences than the otitis media but it can be very very painful.

It is due to the development of a furoncle in the external auditory canal. The ignition and the abscess can close the conduit completely.

Sometimes the infection is due to a cleaning of the too inopportune conduit by using cotton buds; the conduits secrete a sebum which lubricates them, avoids drying and the installation of an eczema which can be the cause of the infection.

The baths in the sea, the wind, can be the cause of the appearance of an external otitis at the sensitive people.

A local treatment for the external otitises

The antibiotics by general way (by the mouth) are not always effective because this place is not quite vascularized, then the antibiotics arrive at often insufficient concentrations.

It is sometimes necessary to make a local treatment by using compresses in the form of wicks. They are introduced into the conduit, it is necessary to soak regularly with anti-inflammatory drugs like products containing cortisone during several days.

To retain

The otitises must be treated vigorously, the risk of deafness exists.

An acute otitis media with pain is fever passes seldom unperceived and is treated by antibiotics.

The otitises (chronic) séreuses are more insidious, it is necessary to detect them in time and to treat them by tympanic aerators to avoid a disorder of the hearing which could be final.

The people who carry this equipment should not put the head under water.

The external otitises are due to the development of a furoncle in the external auditory canal, they are painful, the local treatments are effective. One should not misuse the cotton buds.